Flight 3

The Past, Present, and Future of Leg Space and Elbow Room

I give my take on why taking off in different classes can make a big difference in comfort!

Looking in the rearview mirror of airline travel, I must admit that it is not just the aircraft and destinations that have changed over the years. What about those airplane seats? I was reminded of this several years ago when my wife and I were traveling on the Buquebus hydrofoil from Buenos Aires to Montevideo to attend the wedding of the daughter of some Uruguayan friends. This is a service that transits across the River Plate estuary in a little over two hours.

I was surprised when we arrived on board to see all the seats were old business-class airline seats from the 1980s! These were seats that had a small recline functionality and were slightly wider than those in the economy section of an airplane, not unlike today’s North American domestic first-class seats.

Because of its size, the arrival of the Boeing 747 provided airlines the opportunity to design different seating layouts. Before the appearance of this new aircraft, the seating on jets was limited to first- and economy-class arrangements; but with the 747, airlines started to offer lounge and piano bars in their first-class sections. However, it did not take airline executives long to work out they could insert an additional twenty-five to thirty-five economy seats in this “wasted” first-class space, thereby generating more passenger revenue.

But as time went on, they realized sometimes as much as 25 percent of the economy seats on these large planes went unsold. So, in the mid-1970s, airlines started tinkering with the concept of a new class of seating that would offer more premium seats and service than regular economy class, and this is what eventually became known as business class. British Airways was the first airline to announce plans for a new seating section in their aircraft, but it was Qantas that first operated this new class of seating.

By the 1990s, the airlines realized additional revenue could be achieved by augmenting the differentiation between economy- and business-class seating. Not just the space, but also the seats themselves. And so we then got to fly what became known as the “cradle seats.” These seats had slightly more recline than the first generation of business-class seating, but in addition, they had adjustable footrests, which extended outward, and headrests.

This differentiation was then further augmented on long-haul flights, where, unlike business-class seating on domestic flights that offered relatively few advantages over economy-class seating, angle-flat seats became the norm. Today the majority of airlines have done away with first-class seats and have simply further enhanced the business-class configurations in two ways: providing every seat with direct aisle access, using a 1-2-1 configuration, and installing 180-degree lie-flat beds. In effect, today’s business class is the functional equivalent of yesterday’s first class, although certain airlines have reintroduced first-class sections as suites in order to stay upmarket over contemporary business class.

Out of personal curiosity, I have often wondered how Boeing came up with the numbers to define its aircraft. According to the Boeing website, model numbers were assigned years ago to each division of aircraft: the 300s and 400s were given to military aircraft, 500s for turbine engines, 600s for rockets and missiles, and 700s were allocated to commercial aircraft.

The marketing executives at Boeing—paging Don Draper—felt the number 700 did not have the right “ring” to it. As a result, they came up with 707, pronounced seven-OH-seven. The 707 model was followed by the 727, 737 (now infamous because of the Max 8 version), 747, 757, 767, 777, and the 787. And yes, there is currently a concept design for a 797, and who knows where the numbering will go from there?!

I confess, I, for one, look forward to the day that I board a shiny new 807. I can’t imagine what its new layout and marketable selling points will entail. Perhaps it will involve supersonic flight. It certainly is a brave new world of air transportation that awaits us.