[IanFromHKG]

I was extremely disappointed to see a recent BT article in which the “reporter” apparently did nothing more than regurgitate some marketing blurb. Obviously, I would be willing to retract this criticism and apologise if Mr Huang is able to provide some evidence that he cast a critical eye over the blurb before writing his “article”, although I suspect this won’t be necessary.

A bit of research into BT’s own articles would reveal that the launch customer has an airframe with an average seat pitch in economy of 29 inches (with as little as 28 inches in the last few rows), a reduction from 30 inches in the former version = something that your own sister site confirms. Even if it is possible to combine with this “wider seats and aisles” in an airframe with the same interior width, does this really translate to an improvement in comfort??

Come on BT – your readers deserve better than this.

[IanFromHKG]

I can’t seem to edit or delete the above post. However, I have subsequently realised that the original article was almost a year old, so my apologies are indeed due to Mr Huang. I am not sure how that article popped up in my reading list, but obviously events moved on since he wrote the article.

Mind you, I still wonder how a fixed size airframe can have wider seats and aisles without something having to give!

[FDOS_UK]

Ian, the only way of making the seats wider is to sacrifice the aisle width – I don’t know if LH have done this,since I rarely fly with them.

[LuganoPirate]

Or you remove one seat from reach row. Though I can’t see airlines doing this.

I think that’s what they did to create PE on LH FDOS.

[AMcWhirter]

There are another two ways to make the seat cushion wider an/or to provide more sideways space.

Boeing will be redesigning the cabin walls of its new B777X so that the 3-4-3 economy layout feels roomier.

When Airbus presented an 11-across economy configuration for its A380 it showed seating with narrower armrests. And it may be that the cabin floor was also raised.

[IanFromHKG]

Alex, did Airbus do any of those things? Or was the article just some uncritical regurgitation of marketing blurb??

[AMcWhirter]

Ian – If a remember correctly, the A380’s cabin floor was to be raised by two inches. So far that hasn’t happened because no airline has ordered an A380 with an 11-abreast economy zone.

However the 11-across configuration has been developed should any airline be interested.

In April 2015 Airbus showed off the 11-across configuration as you will see from the piece we published on April 14, 2015. These are proper seats.

Airbus said the seat cushion width would remain at 18 ins. But the armrests have been narrowed. In fact there’s barely enough room to balance your elbow.

Airbus offers three economy class ‘choices’

[Author]

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