747 and 3-4-3

It’s understandable that airline executives feel pressured over adding extra economy seating, especially when competitors offer ultra-narrow seating – although adding seats at this point in time does rather feel like bolting the densification door after the high fuel price horse has bolted.

From the passenger experience perspective, this layout is terrible – one of the worst experiences in the sky. As the cabin moves from a 3-3-3 seating configuration to a 3-4-3 layout, seat width will drop from the current 18. 5in to 17. That change might only sound like an inch and a half’s difference, but that’s nearly a tenth of the space of a 17in seat. Passengers should be alert to the usual armrest shaving and aisle narrowing – which airlines love to pretend adds extra seat width – to add some decimal points to the official number.

The problem is, passengers aren’t getting smaller, and that 17in measurement at the shoulder counts as an extra small shirt size at most menswear shops. Look around the next time you’re on a plane: how many of the people you see would be wearing an extra small? In Cathay’s favour, the airline has a history of this. The airline went 3-4-3 on its regional Lockheed L-1011 aircraft, which was slightly narrower than the 777, and on which other airlines kept a nine-abreast seating layout. But regional flights around Asia are one thing; Cathay’s ultra long-haul 777 routes, some of the longest in the world, are another.

Another mitigating factor, for some flights anyway: Cathay Pacific does offer a premium economy cabin, so passengers who really dislike feeling the squeeze but can’t spring for business class do have an option to pay the usual 1. 5-2x multiplier that is the ‘premium premium’ for larger reclining chairs – on some of Cathay’s 777 flights, anyway. The 12 non-ER 777-300 aircraft, nearly a fifth of the fleet, do not have premium economy installed. Moreover, Cathay is reducing the size of the premium economy cabins on some aircraft. The suggestion of buying up to premium economy is only a reasonable option if the seats are actually available.

The concept of changing nine passengers from “quite comfortable” to “quite uncomfortable” means that Cathay no longer has a comfort differentiation to long-haul, low-cost competitors like Scoot, let alone other full-service airlines. Cathay Pacific has long been a carrier of choice for passengers; it’s a shame that its management has not been able to turn that boon, combined with the airline’s excellent service, and a goldmine of brand equity, into sufficient profitability.

The 10-abreast move also creates a consistency problem for Cathay Pacific, which is likely to further damage the airline’s brand. Its much-hyped Airbus A350 will have extra-wide seats. The existing A330 fleet will retain its wide seats. But the 777 will be extra-narrow.

No full service airline has chosen to add an extra seat on either of the Airbus aircraft, as some long-haul low-cost carriers like AirAsia X and Cebu Pacific, or legacy charter operators like Canada’s Air Transat, have done.

The problem is that passengers are increasingly savvy, and more passenger experience data than ever is available to them when they’re booking flights. It’s also part of human nature to share bad experiences more than good ones. Cathay is opening up a can of worms that it is unlikely to be able to close.

Moreover, in the real world, this leaves Cathay in a place where a passenger connecting to London from Australia has a better seat on a nine and a half hour A330 flight from Melbourne than on the 12-hour 777 connection to London Heathrow, even while London Gatwick passengers will enjoy much more room on the Hong Kong A350 flight. Where these aircraft fly alongside each other to high-frequency destinations, like London, this difference will be even more visible.

Cathay Pacific has a valuable premium brand heritage from the golden days of travel. As one of the nine-abreast 777 holdouts – like Virgin Australia, Singapore Airlines, Delta, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Korean Air, and a few others – it was able to trade on that.

But that brand heritage will be diminished each time it adds a 10-abreast 777 to its fleet.

From the passenger experience perspective, this layout is terrible.