Airlines reshape the commercial class to adapt to more seats

The business class remains where most of the full service carriers earn the most of their money. Consequently, airlines have long sought to maximize income by offering a product that prevents its most lucrative (and often the most informed) customers from switching to a rival with a better seat.

On large corpse planes of Twin-Asle, direct access to the aisle for each passenger is essential for any serious international airline choosing new seats.

Airlines are now in the position where the capacity of a seats manufacturer to press two additional seats compared to their nearest competitor is a Dealmaker – or Dealbreaker.

The challenge for seats manufacturers begins with the shape of the planes: each wide body has slightly different dimensions. While the cabin soil appears quite rectangular in 2D, the curved side walls and the fuselage are reduced to a complex 3D puzzle.

To make the most of these 3D forms, seats manufacturers double their objective to optimize seats for specific aircraft cabins.

Constraints such as the position of the seat track supports, the point to which the fuselage is narrowed at the front of the cabin, and the position of the toilets and galleys must all be taken into account.

The most immediately visible is the personalized version of Recaro’s R7 seat for the Airbus A330. Its main market focuses on modernized A330CEO aircraft and new construction A330neos.

Here, Recaro is flowing the seat and pavilion curve adjacent to the window significantly. The company also straightens which was a slightly inclined failure to better optimize the narrower fuselage of the A330.

Optimization, but at a cost

The A350 and 787 version of Thompson Aeration is less visible but not less impressive of its Vantage XL seat, whose original version is seen at the Australian flag carrier Qantas and many other operators.

Quite confusing, it is called Vantage XL +, a name it previously used for the DOORED suite version of the XL product.

Here, the Vantage XL product was previously optimized for the narrower A330, and with the new version, Thompson adapts the central section with a larger bridge and more knee space. This is activated by the additional thumbs with which it must operate on the A350 fuselages and 787 wider.

There is, of course, a cost for all this optimization: both literally in terms of seats development, but also in terms of reducing common parts.

There is also an increase in production, certification, maintenance and supply chain costs. But it seems that, for an increasing number of airlines and their creators of seats, the result is worth it.

Find out more about the experience of the passenger experience of John Walton for Skift here.

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