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British Airways Short haul seat pitch changes
- LHR A320s densified to 180 seats (from 168) Winter 2017
- LHR A321s densified to 218 seats (from 205) Summer 2018
This means that there will be 2 extra rows per flight which could reduce average leg room for passengers to 29 inches. This would make it the same as easyJet and slightly worse than Ryanair at 30″. Actually, easyJet will be likely to become worse than BA for leg room, as they are due to increase their number of seats to 186.
What does this mean in reality?
Many other airlines have been doing to same to increase the amount of seats, including Lufthansa. The real question is how BA will achieve the extra seats. Looking at other airlines, there seem to be 2 options. The model that Lufthansa and Vueling used was by relocating the 2 rear toilets to the very back of the cabin and using the available space to add 2 rows of seats. In this scenario only the seats after the overwing exit rows would be reduced to 29″. Since Vueling is where Alex Cruz, the BA CEO, came from, I would say this has to be the most likely model.
The other option, which some crew believe will happen, is to remove the front wardrobe and half of the front galley, adding an additional front row and then reducing the space between all the other rows to get the second extra row in. Obviously the exit row has to remain at a set seat pitch and similar position so there is only so much they can do with the rows up to that point.
The most likely scenarios are that there will be no change to the Club Europe seat pitch and the rows up to the overwing exits. Once the change has happened, if you don’t want to pay for an exit seat, then choose your seat wisely. The best bet would be before the exit row but not too close to the front of the cabin. If you are the front row of economy, you risk getting moved if they need to fit another row of Club Europe in by moving the curtain.
Perhaps Mr Cruz could get some inspiration for the new advertising campaign from BBC’s Come Fly with me!
Qatar leasing LATAM A350s
The aircraft have a different business class seat and layout to Qatar’s A350 aircraft. They are configured in a 2-2-2 layout which is not ideal for those travelling solo. The seats convert into fully flat beds. The best bet for aisle access would be the middle pair of seats.
