In today’s competitive world many of the airlines are struggling for survival because of increasing overheads regarding the cost of fuel and salaries of its employees. Therefore, they are trying out all sort of gimmicks to improve the bottom line. One of the most popular of these is to add a number of seats because each seat is a revenue earner and Airbus has come up with a novel idea for its A380 jets.
Airbus shows the way
In order to accommodate more passengers in each cabin, many of the airlines have gone in for reduced legroom and narrower width of the seats.
Due to such innovations, most of the major carriers have met the objective of increasing their profits, and there is no let up in efforts to optimize cabin space. Los Angeles Times reports that Airbus has come up with a revolutionary concept with plans to add as many as 80 additional seats into its large A380 jets.
Airbus officials have announced in an aircraft interior fair in Hamburg, Germany, that they can increase the seating capacity in A380 by some minor alterations. These would include removal of one staircase on the double-decker plane, an introduction of a slimmer staircase, modification of the crew’s rest area and reconfiguration of the arrangement of seats for Economy Class passengers.
The revised seating arrangement
Kiran Rao, Airbus executive vice president of strategy and marketing, lays stress on ideas of how to improve the performance of their products on a daily basis. To meet this objective, there is a need for innovations that will be beneficial in the long run.
The new configuration of passenger seating in the A380 cabin would translate into 11 passengers abreast in the economy class while there would be nine abreast in the premium economy class.
The arrangement for 11 abreast would 3-5-3, and for the nine abreast, it would be 3-3-3. Of course, economy class is always a bit crowded, and a number of airlines follow the layout of 3-4-3 in the economy class and 2-3-2 configuration premium economy.
Airbus has said that once the modifications are introduced, the A380 jets can carry 575 passengers in each flight.
It seems this has already caught the fancy of the market and some customers hold a positive view of the future scenario. However, while reduction of legroom and squeezing for space is already a common feature in flights, passengers will now have to master the art of jostling for elbow room once the new feature becomes operational.
