For decades Airbus has pitched its wider economy class seats as a competitive advantage for airlines versus flying Boeing Aircraft. The aircraft manufacturer continues to push passengers comfort as its north start of design principles. But behind the scenes things have shifted, with a narrower seat now seen as “standard” for the long-haul fleet, and suppliers feeling the squeeze as well.
A 10-abreast economy class layout in the A350 changes the operating economics of the aircraft, and suppliers are responding, though perhaps not willingly. At Aircraft Interiors Expo 2024 in Hamburg this week Safran Seats showed a sample of such, with a 17″ wide seat on offer.
The Z400 serves as Safran’s primary offering in the long-haul economy class market. The updated, and narrower, version of the seat meets Airbus‘s goal of delivering the increased cabin density, but it comes at the expense of passenger comfort. And unlike most offerings on the show floor, in this case even the company developing the concept was not entirely convinced it is a good idea.
Arthur Glain, Head of Passenger Experience & Industrial Design for the seating group, described the 17-inch wide layout as “acceptable” but also something his company was working to gather more feedback on, both from airlines and passengers, to determine if it is worth pursuing further.
Even if Safran Seats is less than keen to continue, however, Glain suggested it might have to. “Airbus is heavily pushing suppliers to be available to provide a 10-abreast configuration,” he noted as we rubbed shoulders in the cabin mockup. He also observed that, generally speaking, airlines “have not been pushing so much for the 10-abreast.” But Safran will “play the game with Airbus” to see where the market leads.
Can you trust the market to decide?
Ultimately, the market will decide what is acceptable, a position Airbus’s VP Cabin Marketing Ingo Wuggetzer has pushed in recent years as the company’s endorsement of the 10-abreast layout has grown. The New Production Standard (NPS) design of the A350 slims the sidewalls, making the more dense option viable. And, with that, the potential for Airbus to pursue those market opportunities.
“It is not only a niche, it’s not only for low cost customers anymore,” Wuggetzer explained in an October 2022 interview. “[10-abreast on the A350] is something that is a consumer standard economy. And you have the comfort option and even more that you can decide on as well.”
Calling a 17″ seat width the standard is a shift in messaging for Airbus. A decade ago the company pushed hard to create an industry standard of 18″ seat width for long-haul flying, citing research on passenger comfort and sleep quality. That campaign highlighted that “Airbus has always maintained a standard of 18 inch (45.72cm) minimum in its long haul economy cabins. However, other manufacturers are eroding passenger comfort standards by going back to narrower seat widths from the 1950s in order to remain competitive.”
When reminded of that campaign and the shift this represents, Wuggetzer simply noted that the company is “following the market, and we still offer all the other [wider seat] solutions. But at least we should also offer this request from the market and provide a solution that meets what we would call maybe a minimum entry standard.”
The 10-abreast layout operates today for FrenchBee and Air Caraibes. Philippines Airlines previously indicated it will also fit its economy cabin with that density.
Other vendors are less convinced
While Safran had an option for the 10-abreast A350 on display, not all seating manufacturers were on board with the idea. Collins Aerospace does not offer that option today, and appears unlikely to in the future. Rob Jones, Director of Sales for the seating division, remarked that his company has not seen a request for a 10-abreast A350 RFP in some time. Should one come along, it would require “completely new development” to deliver for the airline customer, one Collins is not keen to pursue, mostly from an economics perspective. Jones explained, “It is a relatively small market niche, and just not a space we’re going to play in.”
Similarly, Recaro Aircraft Seating’s CEO Mark Hiller similarly observed that it comes with “a lot of challenges, lots of testing, and narrow seats.” Those complexities would increase the difficulty of certification as well. Ultimately, Hiller suggested that “this is something that could, for sure, be done, but it would also compromise on comfort and comes with a lot of effort.”
Recaro does not see a lot of conversations around 10-abreast on the A350 today. But should an airline come up with a good use case, the company is not opposed to supporting it.
Separately, after its premiere last year, Recaro’s Xtend Seat option for single-aisle cabin densification was not on display at the company’s booth in 2024. But the concept is not entirely dead. Product manager Violina Mikova shared that the company is not pursuing certification of the design today. But, she also noted, “Airbus is pushing for the design” and Recaro will engage once the aircraft manufacturer is ready to resume efforts on the concept.
More news from Aircraft Interiors Expo 2024
- Expliseat launches new economy class seat with Hop! E190 contract
- Back to basics: New business class seat designs vie for Crystal Cabin Award honors
- Upstarts get creative in economy class for 2024 Crystal Cabin Awards
- In search of sleep: innovation targets snoozers for 2024 Crystal Cabin Award
- AIX Preview: New IFE ideas set to fly
- Increased supplier option a Plus
- Anuvu validates dual-panel Ka-band antenna with in-flight testing
- IndiGo taps AirFi for on-board entertainment trial
- Condor taps Intelsat for inflight internet
- Intelsat, JAL partner on LEO/GEO connectivity
- Eclipse snags 50+ plane connectivity retrofit deal
- Thales FlytEDGE delivers a new paradigm for in-flight entertainment
- AJet to offer inflight internet via TCI
- Introducing Helix, the new single-aisle economy class seat from Collins Aerospace
- Feeling the squeeze: 10-abreast A350 moves closer to mainstream
- Dropping out of the IFE race
- Inflight Dublin snags order-to-seat deal with AirAsia
- Starlink sees Qatar Airways, airBaltic both online by end of year, architecture changes beyond
- Southwest shows off customizations for new Recaro seats
- Airbus adds to HBCplus backlog
- ThinKom sees trio of innovations driving growth
- Collins, Panasonic launch Maya: next-gen business class concept seat
- SES Open Orbits brings multi-constellation, multi-orbit Ka-band connectivity together on a global scale
- Shifting install sequencing
- AirBaltic takes Pratt to task for engine issues
- ESAs, China, and the future of inflight connectivity
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When Airbus’s executives commit in writing to fly in a standard, main cabin seat, on a 10-abreast FrenchBee & Air Caraibes (and any other airline that offers this despicable & horrible configuration) on their A350s for an extended period of time for their long haul travel, then I might reconsider my long held POV about how bad an idea this is.
Of course, I’m not holding my breath expecting them to do the right thing by committing to fly in the same, disgusting cattle cars they expect everyone else to cram into before going all in a following (Mc)Boeing’s (contemptible) race to the bottom for vast majority of fliers with their horrid, densified main cabins on their 777s & 787s.
However, Airbus executives would be wise to listen to its key vendors who are resisting the (likely greed driven) push to cheapen (aka “densify” with teeny-tiny child-sized seats) their A350 cabins a la (Mc)Boeing’s wide-bodies.
I mean, should (Mc)Boeing be anyone’s example worthy of emulating these days anyway?!?!