When narrow is the new normal

Emirates and Qatar will use their Boeing 777-200LR aircraft for these routes while United will use its 787-9 Dreamliner.

The problem is, the Emirates and United aircraft lack the passenger experience in either business or economy that would make ultra long-haul flights approaching 18 hours anything more than a pain.

I flew Newark-Changi just before Singapore Airlines cut its US allbusiness class nonstops, and the SQ seat was great. Not so much on the Emirates or United aircraft.

Emirates’ 777 fleet offers its usual blinged-out first class suites at the pointy end, followed by its terrible narrow angled lie-flat business class seats in a 2-3-2 configuration that might have been competitive a decade and a half ago but are now firmly below par.

United’s 787-9 Dreamliner – the same type that serves Melbourne – offers 2-2-2 B/E Diamond seats, which are at least fully flat but still require the midnight clamber, where window seat passengers must spring, gazelle-like (or hippo-like) over the slumbering aisle passenger to reach the aisle.

Qatar, too, will offer 2-2-2 fully flat beds on Doha-Auckland, and although the wider cross-section of the 777-200LR aircraft it plans to use gives a good amount more space, it doesn’t have direct aisle access.

This might not be a huge problem for most able-bodied taller travellers, but even if the thought of straddling a neighbour you don’t know doesn’t put you off, consider whether less nimble passengers – middle managers in paid business who might have had a knee replacement, or older retirees on an upmarket leisure trip – let alone people with shorter legs or passengers with disabilities, would be affected.

It’s 2016. The new standard for business class seats on airlines that expect to command standard business class fares is fully flat with direct aisle access – at the very least a staggered seat like the new Thompson Vantage XL-based Qantas Business Suite, or preferably an outward-facing herringbone like Virgin Australia’s B/E Super Diamond-based The Business.

But economy on these aircraft is where the passenger experience really bites – into your knees. Emirates was an early adopter of the 3-4-3 configuration for its Boeing 777 aircraft, and the 17in wide seats and narrow aisles are a recipe for poor passenger experience.

Emirates flying these aircraft for nearly 18 hours to New Zealand, where 31 per cent of adults fall in the obese category, while a further 35 per cent are classified as overweight, would seem to predict a particularly poor passenger experience.

For reference, if you take the 17in width shoulder measurement in men’s shirts, it’s an extra small according to clothier Brooks Brothers. Look at the next 10 people you see. How many of them wear an extra small?

If, on average, seven out of 10 adults in that 3-4-3 row of seats don’t fit across the shoulders, how pleasant is that nearly 18 hour flight going to be?

It’s the same with United. Those nine-abreast Dreamliner seats are also 17in wide, and again feature the narrow aisles that require passenger shoulders and flight attendant hips (plus less forgiving service trolleys) to overlap.

The economy class blame can’t entirely be placed at the door of the airlines here, of course. It’s clearly difficult for airline decision makers to resist the siren call of an additional seat in every row. Alas, the airline answer to “if Jimmy jumped off a bridge, would you?” appears to be “yes”.

Boeing needs to take a lot of responsibility for its choice of cabin width on the 777 and 787 here. Whereas Airbus created aircraft cross-sections like the A300 (and from that the A310, A330, A340 and A380 upper deck), A380 lower deck, and A350 to make it very difficult indeed for full-service carriers to consider adding an extra seat, Boeing did not.

One thing the airlines can be blamed for, however, is a lack of proper premium economy seats. United’s extra-legroom Economy Plus is better than nothing, but shares the ultra-narrow crosssection with regular economy on the 787, and the upgrade fee to Economy Plus can be several hundred dollars on a long flight.

With the ever-widening gap between business and economy – what Airbus calls the Comfort Canyon – together with business pricing that is, on average, four times economy (compared with premium economy’s 1.5-2x) we’re reaching the stage where airlines that don’t offer premium economy are seeming wilfully to choose against giving their passengers the choice to be comfortable.

In case you’re starting to get depressed about flying, however, there is bright spark in the ultra long‑haul passenger experience darkness: Qatar Airways is rumoured to also be starting a nonstop to Auckland, for which is it is expected to use the Boeing 777-200LR aircraft – aircraft that the airline promises it won’t be refitting into the 3-4-3 configuration in economy (unlike its 777-300ER fleet). With flight times between Doha and Auckland of over 18 hours, at least not every airline is making economy worse.