Tens, tens, tens across the board

Some two and a half decades later, when Boeing came to design the 777, something similar happened. Most initial operators of the big twinjet took seating in a nine-abreast configuration, with very spacious seats around 18.5in wide. Some used a 3-3-3 layout, while others (especially those with a background of operating the Douglas DC-10 or McDonnell- Douglas MD-11 trijets) opted for 2-5- 2: it was great for everyone apart from that middle seat occupant, who was a rare beast back in the days of lower load factors.

‘There is no officially accepted definition of width.’

A few operators, though, largely in the leisure, low-cost or charter market, opted for ten-abreast seating in a 3-4-3 layout. This included the Japanese airlines, JAL and ANA, which operated (and still operate) the stretched Boeing 777-300 in highdensity configurations on domestic routes, which are largely around an hour. Despite competition from the Shinkansen bullet train along the spine of the country, high speed rail has yet to reach the northern city of Sapporo, Japan’s fifth largest city.

The Japanese airlines, of course, benefit from the fact that the average frame size of passengers on their domestic network is substantially slighter than that in most Western markets. Still, it was then, and remains now, utterly remarkable to watch five hundred passengers quickly deplane, a team of cleaners sprint onto the aircraft, and a further five hundred passengers reboard the aircraft.

As with the Queen of the Skies, though, the 777 experienced that harbinger of a less pleasant passenger experience: densification. As airlines searched for ways to cut costs, particularly on lower-yielding routes or where networks generated loweryielding fares, ten-abreast slowly became the norm, even on airlines that wish to present themselves as premium.

Some mitigation comes from the arrival of premium economy in the eight-abreast, approximately 20in wide form found on many 777s. As business class continues to evolve into and exceed the space and features of the first class seats of yesteryear, though, premium economy continues to expand both literally and figuratively to fill the gap between classes – along with its price.

Another part of the context over the last decade has been the 787 Dreamliner, another Boeing product originally advertised with wide seats (eight-abreast in this case) but where the intersection with airline economic and accounting reality brought some of the narrowest seats in the sky in nine-abreast layouts.

Ten-abreast Boeing 777 and nine-abreast 787 seats are, largely, similar at roughly 17in wide, but cited numbers differ because there is no officially-accepted definition of width: should it be across the seat cushion, or between the armrests? If the latter, how wide should the reference armrest be, to avoid adding mendacious inches to advertised seat width by offering minuscule armrests?

But what do these numbers mean in reality? In context, the sizing at the shoulder for a standard fit polo shirt from US clothier Brooks Brothers is 17in — for an extra small. Small is 18in, medium 19in, and large 20in. Look around the gate area the next time you’re boarding a flight and see how many people you imagine wear a small shirt, let alone an extra small.

There are holdouts in the nine‑abreast 777 world, largely in Asia Pacific and often touching (or connecting from) Australia: Japan Airlines’ long-haul 777s are nineabreast, together with the airline’s 787s in their original, comfortable eight-abreast layout. Korean Air, too, offers nine-abreast, though its 787s are the denser version and that has often been a precursor to 777 densification. Singapore Airlines, Thai Airways, Air China and China Southern are among “no news is good news” holdouts, but there are two bright lights on the passenger experience horizon.

Virgin Australia, with its newly refitted 777s, retained the 3‑3‑3 configuration alongside the spacious‑for-2018 pitch of 32in when it installed new business class seats and refitted premium economy. Its transpacific partner Delta, too, revealed its refreshed configuration with doored suites in Delta One, a new proper premium economy cabin, and the US carrier is actively marketing its nine-abreast superiority, advertising “9-abreast seating in Main Cabin versus the industry norm of 10 across”.

Once again with passenger experience, it turns out that Australia really is the lucky country.