Can a Low Cost have 2 cabin classes
The Ryanair principle is all passengers are the same. However none of their basic principles seems so strong they can't be broken. Take the free seating. Fallen by the wayside. Single queueing always with families and they who needed help boarding first. Also gone. Anything to make an extra buck looks like their new way.
Could this lead to a 2 or more class division of the cabin. After all full service airlines saw it as a cheap way of charging twice as much, or more, for the tickets. But when does it then stop to be a Low Cost and just becomes another full service with slightly lower fares.
Norwegian is running a 2 class principle with more spacious seating in its premium cabin. But then it is more a Low Fare than a fully Low Cost competitor. Yes is tempting for those quite a few extra quid some are willing to pay for a little more be it space, food or service. But how much does it cost to have 2 sets of cabin standards, 2 types of meals and, 2 types of queues. And how distracting is it for the operations. The loss of seats due to a more distancing seat configuration with more comfort is also a worry, together with the lack of flexibility for auto-adjusting how many can be sold in each class. Not to mention that those seats will be more expensive to buy, and heavier so demands more fuel and produces more CO2 per passenger, in the first place.
Strangely enough nearly every airline that goes transatlantic and intercontinental have selected a minimum 2 class configuration. Understandable for smaller startups that take over used planes that already have that setup. But for Norwegian that is buying their planes brand new direct from the manufacturer and can decide themselves for whatever seat configuration they want?
The single class principle do not mean it can't be broken in a crisis. Specially by those airlines that don't compete entirely via lowest fares of all. In CoVid19 times a more sanitized class for some and a Couldn't Care Less Class for the rest could increase the market size of potential customers just with a bit of extra cleaning and without changing cabin configurations. In some countries it might even convince governments of dropping the middle seat free principle at least for the whole cabin, as long as you give people the option. In addition it can be done with just a single seat configuration and just a moveable divider, so can be of different class capacity for each and every flight with the same plane.
Could this lead to a 2 or more class division of the cabin. After all full service airlines saw it as a cheap way of charging twice as much, or more, for the tickets. But when does it then stop to be a Low Cost and just becomes another full service with slightly lower fares.
Norwegian is running a 2 class principle with more spacious seating in its premium cabin. But then it is more a Low Fare than a fully Low Cost competitor. Yes is tempting for those quite a few extra quid some are willing to pay for a little more be it space, food or service. But how much does it cost to have 2 sets of cabin standards, 2 types of meals and, 2 types of queues. And how distracting is it for the operations. The loss of seats due to a more distancing seat configuration with more comfort is also a worry, together with the lack of flexibility for auto-adjusting how many can be sold in each class. Not to mention that those seats will be more expensive to buy, and heavier so demands more fuel and produces more CO2 per passenger, in the first place.
Strangely enough nearly every airline that goes transatlantic and intercontinental have selected a minimum 2 class configuration. Understandable for smaller startups that take over used planes that already have that setup. But for Norwegian that is buying their planes brand new direct from the manufacturer and can decide themselves for whatever seat configuration they want?
The single class principle do not mean it can't be broken in a crisis. Specially by those airlines that don't compete entirely via lowest fares of all. In CoVid19 times a more sanitized class for some and a Couldn't Care Less Class for the rest could increase the market size of potential customers just with a bit of extra cleaning and without changing cabin configurations. In some countries it might even convince governments of dropping the middle seat free principle at least for the whole cabin, as long as you give people the option. In addition it can be done with just a single seat configuration and just a moveable divider, so can be of different class capacity for each and every flight with the same plane.
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