Alex McWhirter examines topical business travel issues. This month: how more airlines are forgoing space for profit when it comes to the Dreamliner.
How long did it take the airlines to squeeze in more economy class passengers? It was a decade in the case of the B747. For the B777 it took a couple of years, but for the new B787 Dreamliner it’s been two months.
In January, Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) inaugurated its B787 service to Europe. Economy class passengers sitting in an eight-across (2-4-2) configuration and enjoying ample leg and elbow room on its 12-hour ten-minute flight between Tokyo Haneda and Frankfurt must have thought the Dreamliner was living up to its claim of revolutionising air travel. The reality will be somewhat less attractive. Two months later, at Berlin’s ITB trade show, Qatar Airways became the first carrier to publicly unveil a new and denser economy layout for the large fleet of B787s it has on order. Instead of being accommodated eight-across, Qatar Airways’ economy passengers will be seated in a denser nine-across (3-3-3) configuration. This is bad news for passengers but good news for the airline because it can boost revenues. The new layout allows Qatar’s B787s to fit in 120 more economy passengers than the same version operated by ANA. What makes Qatar’s move particularly significant is that other airlines will follow its lead. Qatar is generous in the space it allocates to economy passengers on its B777s. Unlike its Gulf rivals, the airline continues to offer nine-across economy seating on these planes. If Qatar has determined that nine-across seating is the way to go with the B787, then we can be reasonably certain that other airlines will do the same. Why does nine-across on the B787 appear dense? It’s because it has a narrower cabin than the B777, so nine-across on the Dreamliner equates to the much-criticised ten-across layout now found on a number of B777 operators, including Emirates, Etihad Airways, Air France, KLM and Air New Zealand. Qatar Airways’ B787 economy seats will be two inches narrower than those on its B777s, at just under 17 inches (43cm) wide compared with just under 19 inches (48cm). Legroom on the Dreamliner will be 32 inches (81cm), while on the B777 it varies between 32 and 34 inches (81cm-86cm). This is important because the Dreamliner is not intended for short routes within the Gulf. Qatar Airways has ordered the B787 for eight- to 14-hour stages between Doha and Asia, Europe, North America, Australia and so on. Every bit of space counts. Before the B787 entered service, Boeing suggested that airlines offered an eight-across layout in economy class but that airlines could, if they wished, move to nine-across for improved economies. This is what has happened. While the two launch carriers for the B787 – ANA and Japan Airlines – adopted Boeing’s suggestion, the others have moved to nine-across so they can fill their B787s with many more passengers. For commercial reasons, most B787 operators have still to announce their seating configurations. But of those that have, Ethiopian, Air India, Jetstar, LAN Chile, LOT Polish Airlines, Norwegian, Thomson Airways and United will feature 3-3-3 layouts in their back cabins. British Airways, which has 24 B787s on order, has yet to divulge seating details. The Dreamliner will certainly be tackling lengthy missions. While Qatar’s first B787 will come to London in July, over the next year we will see Ethiopian’s B787s serving routes such as Addis Ababa to Guangzhou. In addition, LOT will operate the plane from Warsaw to Chicago, LAN Chile will fly it between Santiago and Madrid, and Norwegian will roster its B787s out of Oslo to New York and Bangkok. According to a Bloomberg report, Qatar Airways also plans to operate its B787s on new routes from Doha to Atlanta, Chicago, Boston and Detroit “within the next year”. We can only hope that the B787’s quieter cabins, larger windows and improved air quality will compensate for the comfort deficiency in the back cabins.
