Airlines are scrapping economy seats to fit more ‘expensive’ passengers onboard and it’s bad news for your cheap flights
AIRLINES are scrapping some of their economy seats to make room – for more expensive ones on their planes.
Air France‘s new La Premiere cabin recently launched onboard, but costs $11,000 (£8,288.87) to travel between Paris and New York, America.
Yet, there are passengers that are willing to pay this.
The La Premiere cabin is part of Air Frances $550million (£414.4million) investment to upgrade existing planes and lounges and push to attract higher spending travellers.
But they aren’t the only airline doing this, reports the WSJ.
Airlines across the planet are racing to build the most exclusive and high-end cabins available on the market, for passengers who are willing to pay the top dollar.
This includes upgrading soft amenities, such as caviar and champagne, teaming up with designers to provide custom pajamas and partnering with Michelin star chefs to upgrade menu offerings.
The push is partially as a result of business passengers not returning to pre-COVID levels and therefore airlines are looking for ways to increase their profits.
This is because economy seats are there to subsidise the cost of flying, whereas premier seats and cabins are there to make the airline money.
Essentially, airlines can charge more for business and first class seats, making them more profitable.
But all of this depends on the amount of money regular leisure passengers are willing to spend.
For example, a regular economy seat can cost under $1,000 (£753.53), for a return flight between Paris and New York.
This then doubles to $2,000 (£1,507.07) for a premium economy seat.
But the jump to a La Premiere cabin, for instance, goes up to $11,000 (£8,288.87).
Cabins are more private and do have more space – La Premiere cabins span 38-square-foot and have five windows each.
In comparison some Emirates first-class cabins span 40-square-feet and some Singapore Airlines cabins sprawl across 50-square-feet.
For the ultimate luxury and space, Etihad even has a 125-square-foot residence.
Yet despite this, it remains unclear whether leisure passengers spending more money on these seats will actually last.
With the waitlist for planes and components being long, airlines have to commit to seat layout far in advance.
This means airlines need to work out demand for more expensive seats.
This may include looking at specific routes, to see whether people spend more money on one route over another and consequently there is higher demand for more premium seats.
Then airlines can assess whether to get rid of economy seats to make room for more premium seats.
If the number of economy seats were reduced, it could cause them to become more expensive as demand may also increase for these seats.
Airbus also recently revealed potentially the poshest plane seat in the world.
Plus, The Sun tried out British Airways’ new First Class seat.