Less is MORE

Airlines redesign seats to squeeze in more people.

Without much fanfare, WestJet Airlines Ltd. has been quietly rolling out some strategic changes to its fleet of Boeing 737s in recent weeks, altering the cabin configuration fairly dramatically to add a new class of seating, all the while packing in more travelers in the rest of its planes.

So far, initial feedback on the new roomier “premium economy” seats has been quite positive, according to Bob Cummings, WestJet executive vicepresident, sales, marketing and guest experience.

But perhaps more importantly, the changes in regular economy have largely gone unnoticed.

“I haven’t heard anything — positive or negative,” Mr. Cummings said.

It’s exactly what WestJet was hoping for.

Both WestJet and larger rival Air Canada are making a big bet this year that advances in the design of so-called slimline aircraft seats will help them not only add a premium economy section on their planes — which will command a premium fare — but also increase the overall number of passengers on their planes. All this without creating discomfort for their customers.

The new aircraft seats are also lighter than previous generations, and therefore come with the added bonus of reducing fuel burn despite additional passengers.

WestJet has yet to formally launch its new premium economy offering, which for a fee will offer passengers added legroom and other perks like priority boarding, complimentary snacks and beverages, and a second checked bag.

The new seats have already found their way into the sky, with WestJet expected to complete the refurbishment of its fleet by the end of the month. Shortly thereafter, the airline will begin offering a upgrade option to premium economy online and at airport kiosks. By the end of June, the premium economy seats will be incorporated in the cost of a ticket, the carrier says.

In order to accommodate the added legroom in the front of its aircraft for premium economy, the remaining seats in the rest of the plane have been squeezed together.

While the airlines would like to focus the attention on added legroom and other amenities in the premium economy section, the concern from consumers has been largely centred on comfort levels created by the shrinking pitch in economy seats.

Pitch is an industry term for the amount of space between the seats on an aircraft, and has long been thought to be synonymous with legroom. But the new slimline seats are starting to turn that long-held belief on its head.

Kent Craver, Boeing Co.’ s regional director of cabin experience and revenue analysis, said advancements in cabin layout and seat design have made it difficult to compare the pitch in modern aircraft to planes still using older seats and interiors.

“Pitch is almost becoming a non-relevant term because of the technology changes in the way seat manufacturers are building seats.”

He said the reality is a slimline seat can have a pitch one or two inches smaller than an older seat and actually offer more legroom because of their game-changing design.

“People say well, if it’s thinner, it has less padding, it’s going to be less comfortable,” Mr. Craver said. “My experience is that some of the biggest and most vocal critics have not actually sat in the seats and it’s a perception thing.”

At the same time, advancements in the design of cabin interiors, from LED lighting and resculpted walls to drop-down luggage bins, can contribute to the overall perception of personal space on a plane.

For instance, a recent passenger survey of a Norwegian air shuttle service found that the passengers in a 737 using Boeing’s so-called Sky Interior, based on the state-of-the-art interior of the new 787 Dreamliner, had a distinctly more positive reaction than those flying in the standard 737 interior. The good vibes extended even to things that hadn’t actually been changed, like seats, configuration and legroom.

“They even said the lavatories were bigger,” he said. They weren’t.

In addition, while most people will tell you they care more about comfort than anything else, that isn’t how it plays out in reality, Mr. Craver said.

“Literally, 95% or 98% of them are unwilling to pay a dime for it. When push comes to shove, it’s all about how much that ticket costs,” he said.

More seats on planes allow airlines to fly more economically and therefore reduce prices, he added. But the smaller pitches also create space for premium economy seats.

“There is a subset of the population that is a little less price sensitive, and they value more personal space or other perks and as a result we’re seeing a huge proliferation of premium economy,” he added.

That’s what WestJet and Air Canada are banking on.

WestJet will be shrinking the pitch in its economy seats on its 737s to between 31” and 32”, from an average of about 34”, in order to allow for a 36” pitch in premium economy. This will allow it to keep the same number of seats on the smaller 737s, and actually add eight more seats on the larger versions.

WestJet will be using the same three-abreast Recaro slimline seats in both economy and premium economy, but will space them out in premium economy.

Air Canada will also introduce premium economy section on five new Boeing 777s that will begin arriving this summer.

The pitch in economy on those planes will shrink an inch to 31” and the width of the seats will also contract to 17” — pretty much in line with WestJet and the broader industry — from 18” today.

Air Canada will also change the seating configuration in economy from a 3-3-3 layout to 3-4-3 to fit more seats on the aircraft.

for more legroom and knee clearance, he added. Mr. Kellough said this has allowed airlines to comfortably shrink the pitch of their seats on average by one or two inches without negatively impacting the personal space for passengers, including the clearance for their knees.

“You could probably push it more to get another inch, but most of the airlines aren’t willing to do that,” he added.

In its research, WestJet had a mock-up of the new seats installed at its headquarters in Calgary where employees could test out the new pitch.

Pitches under 31” failed the airline’s “laptop test,” because they hampered the ability of someone to work comfortably on a laptop computer when the seat in front was fully reclined, Mr. Cumming said.

In addition to allowing the airlines to charge more for premium seats and increasing the overall number of passengers, the slimline seats are considerably lighter than older generations and therefore reduce fuel consumption.

WestJet estimates that every pound it is able to take off one of its planes saves the airline roughly $50 to $60 a year in fuel.

The new slimline seats WestJet will be using are about 20 pounds lighter than its existing seats for each three-seat section at roughly 90 pounds, translating into substantial savings.

But Addision Schonland, founding partner at AirInsight, an aviation consultant firm, said the major drawback of the slimline seats is that some of them tend to be less comfortable on longer flights because they have less cushioning.

“Depending on how long the flight is, is really the question,” he said. “But the future is really going to be less comfort, fuller flights.”

As it stands, however, both Air Canada and WestJet’s new economy sections with a 31inch pitch and roughly 17 inches in width is in line with the industry average.

Because of this, Walter Spracklin, RBC Capital Market analyst, said he sees little downside in the shrinking of the economy seats to allow for the addition of the premium economy section for either Air Canada or WestJet.

“Given that both of them are doing this with comparable pitch, it’s very unlikely that you’re going to see any market share gains one way or the other,” he said.

“We’ve seen it introduced in the U.S. with no significant fallout that we’ve been able to see from going to a premium economy with a lot more dense economy cabin,” he said. “The upside is significant.”

WestJet has said the new premium economy seats in combination with its new fare structure are expected to increase revenue by $50-million to $80-million on an annualized basis.

“There’s minimal costs to reconfiguring their seats to allow this,” Mr. Spracklin said. “There’s very minor, if any operating cost changes as a result of this. That’s why this is almost a no-brainer, and begs the question why these two companies didn’t do it before.”