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Passengers flying to New York with British Airways next summer face the prospect of elbow wars with fellow travellers after it was revealed the transatlantic route from London Gatwick will be one served by a newly configured aircraft with one extra seat squeezed into each row.
The Big Apple is just one destination to be served by BA’s Boeing 777s with 10 seats across the cabin, rather than the existing nine. Flights on the newly-configured craft will start from July 8 next year. Other destinations include Kingston, the Jamaican capital, Orlando, and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic. Passengers flying with the airline to New York from Heathrow, or indeed London City, will not be in the newly-fitted planes.
The “densified” 777s will be based at Gatwick, while its nine-seat siblings will remain at Heathrow. BA’s chief executive, Alex Cruz, said the new layout will help bring fare costs down below those offered by Norwegian, which flies a number of low-cost, long-haul routes out of the West Sussex airport.
Willie Walsh, chief executive of BA’s parent company IAG, told an audience at Capital Markets Day that the move would allow the flag carrier to “lower the average cost per seat, charge a lower price and stimulate demand”.
While the shift from nine seats in a row to 10 in economy – configured 3-4-3 – will reduce seat width, it will also put pressure on on-board services and facilities by increasing the number of passengers by up to a fifth. The number of passengers per toilet, for example, will increase from 25 to 30, it has been suggested.
BA, however, said the economy cabin will be fitted with new entertainment systems with bigger screens, and passengers will continue to enjoy “a generous hand baggage allowance and complimentary food and drink”.
Tickets for the newly-configured 777s are now on sale for next summer’s schedules, with passengers flying to the Disney capital of Orlando on Fridays or the first service on Saturdays to be jostling for space in rows of 10 seats. The same is true of flights to Kingston on Mondays and Wednesdays, however, not Fridays, as well as all flights to Cancun from June next year, and services to Punta Cana.
Routes to Fort Lauderdale and Tampa, both in Florida, will host the “densified” planes on Thursdays, and to the latter, Sundays, too.
A spokesperson for BA said: “We are flying more customers than ever before to our expanding network of destinations.
“To meet this demand, we are updating our 777 cabins to bring us into line with many of our competitors and allow us to offer even more low fares.”
BA is particularly proud of its 777s, as the carrier helped Boeing with the design of the aircraft and is the world’s largest operator of the model.
Among the other airlines with a 10-abreast configuration are Air New Zealand, Emirates and Air France.
British Airways will also reportedly add 12 extra seats on its short-haul Airbus A320 from Heathrow -which will increase the plane’s seating density to match easyJet’s.
The move comes after BA increased its seat width from 16.8ins to 17.3 ins on its new Dreamliner fleet last year.
This followed complaints from travellers, with at least one claiming they did not have enough room to open the cutlery pack with their meal.
However, the firm still hasn’t caught up with some of its rivals.
EasyJet’s A320 airbus and Thomson’s Boeing 767-300ER also offer 18-inch wide seats and even no-frills Ryanair gives wriggle space of 17 inches on its 737-800 aircraft.
Sоurсе: telegraph.co.uk