Economy Travel Starts The 21st Century In Space Race
<B>Economy Travel Starts The 21st Century In Space Race</B>
By David Jonas
One of the more visible developments this year in the U.S. airline industry was American Airlines' move to eliminate several rows of seats from airplanes fleetwide, thereby providing economy class travelers with an additional three or four inches of leg room. While the news was music to often-cramped frequent travelers' ears, travel managers also praised American's strategy, indicating that a few inches can go a long way in the corporate market.
It remains to be seen if roomier coach cabins will result in a significant shift of corporate business to the carrier, since only about one-third of its fleet has been upgraded so far, but it certainly has the potential to play a role. In competitive markets, such as Boston, where travel managers traditionally have used US Airways and Delta, it now may be easier to shift share to American to gain leverage at the negotiating table.
A clearer advantage for the carrier is that additional pitch helps corporations drive traveler compliance if American already is the preferred supplier. In an age of coach class policies necessitated by tighter travel budgets, travel managers can use all the ammunition they can muster, and many told BTN that increased comfort translates directly to higher policy adherence.
United Airlines brought the issue of cramped coach class seating to the forefront by unveiling Economy Plus, which gives coach class travelers in the first six to 11 rows, depending on aircraft type, the extra space. It then proclaimed to have "won the race for space" earlier this spring when it completed installation of Economy Plus on more than 450 aircraft.
However, United's more spacious seating is handed out first to the airline's most loyal frequent travelers and full-fare customers. By spacing out seats throughout the cabin, American one-upped its rival by incentivizing all coach class travelers.
"United's increased leg room in the front end of the cabin is not as consumer-friendly because you have to pay full fare. It begs compromise," said Rolfe Shellenberger, senior analyst at Runzheimer International. "The AA approach is dynamic in that there is no differentiation price. And while that is the better strategy, I am not sure United would be able to sustain it even if it wanted to because of its size."
Either way, skeptical criticisms have surfaced all around the industry, and not just from competitors. One popular comment has been, "American and United don't care about people, they are just concerned about an oversaturation of seats." Of course, removing excess inventory helps the carriers increase load factors and pad other heavily analyzed operating and financial figures. But none of that matters much to the business traveler.
"It is clearly easier to get people on American if it's your preferred, even without any sort of mandate," said one corporate buyer. "Call it marketing or whatever else you want, but it's still another three or four inches no matter how you slice it."
Terry Trippler, airline expert at Onetravel.com, called American's $70 million move "the most important development this year for business travelers." And for the average businessperson flying weekly on American between Chicago and Dallas/Ft. Worth, it might very well be. However, Trippler brought up another side to the story. "It's also about safety," he said. "American will never tell anyone that, but the extra space will make it that much easier to exit the aircraft in an emergency situation."
The fight for space has particular interest in the Chicago market where American and United battle head to head (see story, page 1). American's cabinwide expansion will help it build traffic on routes United currently serves with widebodies. It remains to be seen how the other major airlines will respond. Publicly, they are not saying much, but internally you can bet that the great space debate has garnered much discussion.
"Once American completes its work, they clearly will have a superior product in the skies and Delta will have no choice but to rip out coach seats of those newly painted planes," Trippler predicted.
American also will have to wait and see the effect its expanded leg room will have on corporate sales and traffic in general. At press time, the carrier had refitted more than 160 aircraft representing nearly a third of the entire fleet. The carrier reports it is slightly ahead of the original schedule, which called for a 50 percent completion by the end of June and total refit of the entire domestic fleet by the end of November.
While coach class travelers in the United States still will be more uncomfortable and suffer generally poor all-around service compared with their European and Asian counterparts, for example, at least a step has been taken in the right direction. And as soon as competing carriers experience outward passenger migrations to American and United, travelers and travel buyers likely will see an industrywide shift to a more comfortable inflight experience and tangible domestic competition revolving around service standards.
Said one industry observer, "This is a clear upgrade in product quality, and I cannot think of a similar example in recent history unless you start looking at the premium cabins."
As far as international economy improvements, US Airways took delivery of its first Airbus 330, which will be used on transatlantic routes. The new planes feature 34 inches of seat pitch in economy class and 2-2-2 seating, which eliminates the discomfort of a middle seat.
British Airways, meanwhile, announced a fourth class to fill the gap between business and economy (<I>BTN,</I> Feb. 21). The carrier said that the new seats, featuring more leg room, in-seat power ports and telephones, enhanced food service and extra carry-on baggage space, are aimed not at business passengers, but at economy travelers who want more space and privacy at an affordable premium.