The first important clue came in an email I received from a reader in Boston.
“I just returned from a harrowing flight from Boston to Houston in ‘First Class’ on a United Airlines Boeing 737-MAX, a truly horrifying and unpleasant flight that I will never experience again. The return trip was on a JetBlue coach, an Airbus A220, which was much more comfortable and 75% cheaper. I don’t want to fly a 737 anymore if I can avoid it. ”
It turns out there’s a lot to unpack from this one-time experience, as more Americans than ever endure the nemesis of travel fun: the bus seat.
First, we’re used to our lives being improved by technological upgrades that happen relatively quickly with each generation, like broadband internet and smartphones, so why isn’t that the case in the back of an airplane cabin? It’s no wonder you wonder if this is the case. The rest of the airplane has changed over the decades. Cockpit automation has made flying safer, and rapid engine evolution has made it significantly more efficient and environmentally friendly. But the coach remains essentially a tube packed with as many seats as possible. For many people, this will continue to be the case for many years to come.
Only two of the planes that fly regularly on U.S. domestic routes have cabins designed from the ground up using the latest technology to improve flight comfort. One is a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, and his other is the aforementioned Airbus A220. Hugely favored by passengers, the Dreamliner is his two-aisle widebody used on the longest transcontinental routes, but his smaller A220 is used in sufficient numbers on short routes to make a difference. We are reaching it.
Neither Boeing nor Airbus planned it that way. The A220 originated in Canada and was conceived and manufactured by a company called Bombardier. The designers’ mission was simple. The idea was to build a new single-aisle jet that passengers would actually like, make the cabin environment much quieter with significantly less dry air, and, crucially, make the cabin sufficiently spacious. Only 5 seats per row, split 3/2, no airline could cram 6 seats into a row.
They were successful in all respects, but as the first jets began arriving at airlines, Bombardier ran out of money. That was music to Boeing’s ears. Boeing correctly judged from the beginning that the plane could seriously enter the short-haul, single-aisle market that the 737 had dominated for decades. In the 1960s, it became a global favorite of low-cost airlines with its sardine-can seating approach.
That joy didn’t last long. After ending its monopoly on the 737 single-aisle jet in the 1980s with the A320, Airbus took the plunge and bought the entire project from Bombardier, renaming it the A220. Boeing responded by trying to impose tariffs on A220 sales, which are too expensive for U.S. airlines to buy. Airbus successfully countered this by moving part of its A220 production line to Alabama (many of the plane’s key parts, including the engine, were made in the U.S. anyway).
But the battle between Boeing and Airbus is actually a story best told in inches. Because this inch is what determines whether everyone turns right when boarding.
When Airbus designed the A320, they decided to make the cabin 7 inches wider than the 737. It may not seem like a big deal, but it was a difficult decision. The advantage is that each seat can be an inch wider, as well as higher ceilings, larger bins, and less claustrophobic tube impact. The downside was that the plane would be heavier, but that meant the jet used more fuel and was more expensive to operate than the 737, so Boeing quickly took advantage of that.
This was important for an airline whose primary concern is profit (rather than bottom size). To this day, the world’s two largest low-cost airlines, Southwest Airlines in the United States and Ryanair in Europe, have purchased each generation of the 737; Airbus has never purchased one. But gradually other airlines realized that passengers preferred the more comfortable A320. In fact, improvements in engine efficiency will almost eliminate the difference in operating costs, and by 2033 the world’s A320 fleet will outnumber the 737 by more than 1,500 aircraft, according to Aviation Week Network, which tracks all airline purchases. right.
Two measurements are important for passenger comfort. It’s the seat width and the so-called pitch, the space between the rows of seats that determines the legroom and ease of getting in and out. (FAA regulations require at least 9 inches of space between the front of your seat and the back of the seat next to you, which isn’t exactly wide.) Most 737 seats are 17 inches wide (some of the newest models can be 17.8 inches wide by taking space from the aisle), but a typical budget cabin has a pitch of 32 inches. Or 33 inches. Seat width on the A320 is never less than 18 inches, and pitch varies. For example, low-cost airline Frontier may have a minimum of 28 inches and a maximum of 38 inches, depending on price category.
Delta Air Lines was the first in the U.S. to use the A220, and passengers immediately noticed the difference in the seats. Coach seats were 18.6 inches wide with a pitch of 30 to 32 inches, and the small first class section was 21 inches wide with a seat pitch of 30 to 32 inches. The pitch is 36 inches. But other advances also made the completely updated experience even more impressive, including wider aisles for easier boarding and exit, larger windows, non-curved vertical side walls, and larger overhead bins.
JetBlue Airways, which followed Delta with its A220, has similarly sized seats. The airline has Boston Logan as its hub for A220 flights, from which it flies to many U.S. cities as well as Bermuda and Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
JetBlue was founded in 1999 by David Neeleman. He used the larger cabins of his A320s to support his branding as an airline with overly gregarious cabin staff who wanted to be loved rather than hated. He left JetBlue in his 2008 year to start a new airline in Brazil, Azul, now the country’s largest airline. He returned to the US market in his 2018 and launched an airline named Breeze. The idea was to target underserved intercity routes and build a new domestic network around the strengths of his new aircraft, the A220.
Due to the A220’s long wait times, the airline also uses smaller Embraer planes on short-haul routes, but the A220 will become mainstream once the new jets arrive. Breeze takes advantage of the space in his three cabin sections on the A220. 12 premium seats, 20.5 inches wide, 39 inches pitch. There are 45 “extra legroom” seats with a width of 18.8 inches and a pitch of 33 inches, and 80 standard coach seats with a width of 18.8 inches and a pitch of 30 to 31 inches.
These cabin comforts are part of a virtuous cycle. Equipped with a much more fuel-efficient engine, the operating costs of his A220 are 14% lower than other jets in its class. This is another reason why Airbus can’t deliver aircraft fast enough. We meet the demands of airlines. At the moment, due in part to post-pandemic supply chain issues, Airbus is only delivering four aircraft a month, and although it has a goal of producing 14 aircraft a month by mid-2020, it has cleared its backlog. It will take years to do so. order.
Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner deserves credit for charting the course for what 21st century passengers should expect, including a vastly improved cabin environment, larger windows, and individually controlled lighting. This was the first Boeing jet in which passenger opinions about needed advances in cabin quality were given as much weight as airline specifications. However, the car was a two-aisle widebody, making it vulnerable to coach bean counter seating. United Airlines seats are just 17.3 inches wide, while American Airlines seats are narrower at 16.2 inches wide.
For the most widely available Boeing, the 737, the ultimate coach hell is yet to come, with the largest of all versions, the 737MAX-10, arriving. I first reported on this prospect in The Daily Beast five years ago, and noted that while the original 737s of the 1960s could accommodate about 100 passengers, the 737 MAX-10 will expand to 230 coach seats, making the jet He pointed out that it has achieved the highest seating density of all. The length of the cabin has been doubled compared to the original. Sitting in the maximum seat with a narrow torso provides an unprecedented tunnel effect.
Deliveries of the 737 MAX-10 have been delayed for years due to a new FAA certification process imposed after two fatal crashes on earlier versions of the 737-MAX. The first 737 MAX-10 models won’t be delivered to airlines until early 2025, according to a report in Aviation Week. But what’s really depressing is that it will continue to carry passengers until at least 2050.