gettinbumped

I believe its 25% from winter to summer, but your thought is still valid

Probe

United Just Built 14 New Planes Using Your Extra Legroom
by Wochit 1:06 mins
More passengers, fewer planes. That's the mantra of the modern airline, which is constantly working on increasing efficiency in order to increase profits. United Airlines announced on Thursday that it expects capacity growth of one-and-a-half to two-and-a-half percent on its entire fleet, with an increase of .half to one-and-a-half percent on its domestic fleet. Part of that growth will be new planes, but part of it will be made on existing ones. United's vice president and chief revenue officer Jim Compton said during the airline's earnings call on Thursday "The major driver of growth is the rollout of slim-line seats. We currently have installed these seats on more than 300 aircraft ... the impact of higher utilization will represent nearly 14 additional aircraft becoming part of our fleet without spending any additional capital."



The above was cut and pasted from a news feed today.

JetPilotMike

I think everyone has the same amount of legroom as before. The difference is the new (uncomfortable) seats don't take up as much room on the plane, thus allowing more seats. I HATE reporters reporting on aviation. They are almost always stupid...er..wrong.

oldmako

JPM,

Allow me to disagree. I non rev a fair amount. The original seats on the bus, in steerage not Econ Plus, were not only significantly more comfortable than the slim line seats, they also offered much more legroom. I'm 6'3" and I really notice the difference.

pilot64golfer

They added seats. Ya they are a bit slimmer, but when you add 1 or 2 rows to the airplanes, you are going to get less legroom. Some of the 320s only got 1 row added, and some got 2 rows added. The 319s got 2 rows added.

oldmako

p64g,

Yes, I am aware of the increased seating density. Likewise, I am also aware of the manic push to increase profitability and lower costs. It all boils down to GB's comment about cheap pizza and the public desire for a second helping. We routinely jam a lot of tall people into our airplanes and fly them from one coast to the next. I'm just a line puke, but I see the quality of the product suffering.

My point is that the leg room has gone to hell in steerage with the introduction of slimline (and additional) seats.

Firsttimeflyer

Pretty much every other airline is doing the same thing. It's the ULCC model and they seem to fill up their planes. Not as comfortable, but if it keeps my paycheck coming and increasing, so be it.

I'll also add that more seats available means a better chance of getting a seat non-rev or commuting.

pilot64golfer

Well this pretty much sums it up. In the end, as much as we'd all like to see a better product, when that consumer is on Expedia or Travelocity etc looking at airline rates, if one airline's seat is $5 less, they book on that airline. We don't have a degree of separation, or at least enough of one, with other airlines that would let us charge a premium on all the seats. So we have two sections that we charge a premium for, First Class and Econ +. That model seems to work, and everything behind the exit rows are the cheap seats.

The market drives both pricing and the product and not the other way around. It is apparently working, because despite passenger's complaints, they still fly enough that we can't get on as a non-rev much of the time.

Airline travel is a commodity. United is homogeneous with respect to other airlines (except for our network) and people tend to not see enough value between them all to pay for improved services in a meaningful way.

We have good jobs, not great ones. The passengers get good service, not great service. We make a good profit, not a great one. There isn't enough disruption in the industry to change that and I don't see it on the horizon either.

Nextlife

Anyone know where it's listed how many of each airframe or crews are at which bases? Might be good to know down the road if trying to end up at a specific domicile sooner rather than later.

UAL T38 Phlyer

Go to CCS, and Reports>Staffing.

Pick a base, fleet, and seat. You can see how many guys, and what seniority, are there.

It does NOT show potential incoming/outgoing though, such as through bids, bumps, new hires, etc.

No way I know of to show how many jets per base.

Under PBS, you can find how many pairings there are per bid month, by base, by fleet. That would give a good approximation.

Changing subjects:

The company has issued two separate reports on the 777-300 rumor saying "....it is an option, but we plan no incremental fleet growth...."

Given the veracity of their denial, it must mean they are buying them as we speak.