Do dense seats really work?

I work for a large IT company that has contracts with both BA and Virgin. When there is a choice, Virgin wins. But there are so many places, like Asia, where there is no choice but BA. I read on the BA website recently that the 787s are going to be packed with 3-3-3. And I will be on it, cause the company uses the stingy sector length rules for class determination (until my next promotion in approx 50 years). Grrrrr!

So...I would like to ask the bean counters at BA...have you done the maths? Compared to 2-4-2, there are 15% more seats. But, that means 15% more IFEs, seats and associated equipment. Plus maintenance. IFE is so unreliable. Then there is extra cleaning. More amenity kits. More meals. More staff needed. Extra admin. Extra stress on the aircraft systems, ventilation, toilets, etc. Plus 20+ extra people have more bags. At 30kg each (guess!) so that is 0.6tonnes of revenue cargo lost, plus 20 people at 50kg weight each is another ton. I seem to recall BA saying recently that economy is only about a third of revenue per flight. If so that means the extra seats will only increase the revenue by about 4-5%. Factor in all those costs, lost cargo revenue and pax discomfort, and is it really worth it? Plus, how much damage will these seats do to the brand? I noticed news outlets are already critical...so why?!

Sorry for the rant, but I do this all the time at work and most likely I am about to spend inordinate amounts of time on these insufferable aircraft!

Help!

I've read this twice and I'm still not sure what you are ranting about !

I think: packing in more seats is a false economy.

Sealink, yeah, that's right, sorry for not being clear!

This may seem like a silly question, but is there a minimum requirement for pax to CC ratio?

This may seem like a silly question, but is there a minimum requirement for pax to CC ratio?

I think the only requirement is in relation to the number of exits - so 10 exits = 10 staff and any extra above that is down to how the airline wants to improve the staff to pax ratio (and especially in the premium cabins)


As to seat density - yes extra room would be nice (especially in Y) but that would put the prices up and people are already complaining how expensive it is to fly. In anycase the airlines can only install the number of seats the manufacturers have received permission from the regulators.

When O'Leary said he wanted to have passengers standing on planes rather than sitting the issue wasn't that standing was unsafe ir illegal but that the plane manufacturers wouldn't apply for the regulatory approval.