The Airliner of the Future
 

I’m daydreaming here:

With all the self-imposed artificial caps on available seats for social distancing, does anyone think future airliners should/will be reconfigured to either eliminate middle seats or space out rows of coach seats with more space per row (as they used to be in the past)?

Will the rush to cram in as many seats as possible resume soon, or will we return to more generous spacing in coach?

Thoughts?

At a 50% increase in cost and therefore ticket price (even more on RJs)?

Nope.

Yes. Pack amazon boxes between the passengers. Very efficient.

Considering most people in cattle class pick their flight by choosing the cheapest one on Google flights, nope. You’ll see theatrics like hand sanitizer, paper masks, or privacy/face dividers between the seats.

Ha ha. Theatrics. So true. My fav is the outraged passangers complaining that the flights are full and that everyone ELSE is not social distancing incognizant to the fact that they are also part of the problem.

The seat pitch on Delta aircraft is pretty much the same as when I was hired 30 plus years ago. Most of the perceived change is due to higher load factors. I did ride on Spirit a few years ago and that was interesting.

You clearly don't comprehend the world view of the Karen.

I've never really thought about this, but I think you are probably right. The number of overall flights (the load factor of the airport/airspace) also makes a difference. When things were at their slowest recently, it really showed what a difference that makes in the overall experience. Boarding is low stress, you have a row to yourself, everything runs on time....

That’s good to know that not everyone has been cramming in seats. I have seen within the past decade an airline increase its 737-800s from 150 to 160 and recently I believe 172 seats.

Also, the low cost carriers have put 200+ seats in A321s.

You're right, but I think we're distinguishing between the "seats getting smaller" and cramming more people into the airplane. The individual seats have stayed pretty similar, and in some ways are arguably better. However, they have definitely crammed more bodies into airframes, but they typically do that by shrinking galleys, lavs, and premium class cabins.

Spirit has only 2 rows of premium class and they are a bit of an exception at 28" pitch seating.

Until recently, I never bothered to think about how much the overall airplane packing adds to the discomfort of the trip, as opposed to something simple like the seat pitch. However, seat pitch ("legroom") is what everyone seems to care and complain about, even though it's not the whole story.