Etihad to go Cattle Class ?

Shame, I know. But economies do play part.
With Etihad’s recent plan to improve the airline and products at a $750 million cost, they decided to opt for 10 abreast Economy class seating in their 777s. Many airlines are opting to do this nowadays – What does this mean ?

Etihad, as you might have been aware, was operating a 9 abreast ( 3-3-3 ) seating on their 777-300ERs so far. This is on par with other ‘premium’ airlines such as Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific, who have opted for the same configuration.
Airlines such as Emirates, Air France and KLM have been in contrast operating 10 abreast ( 3-4-3 ) cabins in their 777s.

The Customer Perspective

True, any passenger loves to get the best value for what they pay. 10 abreast seating means one extra passenger per each row and any passenger would love a less crowded plane. Let alone that wider seat you get in 9 abreast seating. So 9 abreast for 10 abreast is a no-brainer. Or is it ?

The Comparison

9 abreast configuration

Airline Seat Pitch Seat Width
Cathay Pacific 32.0″ 17.5″
Etihad 31.5″-33.0″ 17.0″
Singapore 32.0″ 19.0″

10 abreast configuration

Airline Seat Pitch Seat Width
Air France 32.0″ 17.0″
Emirates 34.0″ 17.0″
KLM 31.0″-34.0″ 17.5″

* All airlines Boeing 777-300ER configuration considered

As you can see from the above details, Emirates offers the largest seat pitch while KLM offers the second biggest seat width, both at 10 abreast configuration. Yet, all the three 10 abreast configured airlines provide as much or even more seat pitch and width than Etihad. But no doubt, still, the aircraft will be crowded, armrests will be smaller and the whole experience will be at least a tad bit less comfortable.

The Reality

Given below are the selected 2009 financial results for two of the aforementioned airlines.

Please note that Emirates reports half year and Singapore reports quarterly results.

* All numbers in USD. Profit in millions and revenue in billions.

The situation is no different with the rest. Air France KLM expects to break even in 2010 while Cathay Pacific has been in the red for the past few quarters. Etihad does not disclose its financial figures, but is expected to be in the red.

The Airline Perspective

In the current economic situation, yields are hard hit and all the airlines are in trouble. When the specific missions 777-300ERs in the fleets of above airlines perform are considered, some differences can be noticed -

The difference in seating can not only be attributed to the markets they serve, but in most cases are evident from the financial outcome too.
Both Singapore and Cathay have preferred to keep the 777-300ERs out of low yielding markets, but again most of their low yielding markets are served with the other 777 types in their fleet which has the same 9 abreast configuration. The outcome of this is higher fares and a lower load factor, which translates to a financial loss in the current climate.
Air France is gradually re-configuring all of their 777s to a 10 abreast configuration while all of KLM’s 777s are already having this configuration. Both of the airlines use these throughout a large part of their respective networks, but these destinations are mostly low yielding ones, specially with KLM. And this 10 abreast ‘packing’ on AF can be seen quite as the outcome of Premium Economy Class’ introduction. However, it is noticeable that Air France has been getting quite a few complaints over the 10 abreast seating in their 777s.
Emirates, being the world’s largest 777 operator, uses their 777s throughout all of their network. But it should be noted that this 10 abreast configuration clearly fits EK’s core market segment, connecting traffic. Most of EK’s traffic comes from the low yielding Indian subcontinent and parts of South East Asia. Most of these passengers are connecting to various points in the EK network via Dubai. In the case of these transit passengers, most prefer to the cheapest and quickest connection – which EK rightly offers. Hence this configuration turns out to be the best choice for EK.
Let’s turn to the the case of Etihad, our subject. Although their 777s have been serving mostly low yielding destinations ( such as Manila, Jakarta and Bangkok ) except for only Toronto, Etihad kept offering a service that was on par far higher than most of its competitors. It appears that the current economic climate has forced Etihad to adapt to the market and change its service, to make money. This is inevitable given that Etihad will continue to operate 777s to its lesser yielding markets as its A340-600s with a better premium product are designed specifically for the premium markets.

Shown below is the current seating layout of Etihad 777-300ER.

If Etihad is to increase the Economy seats while keeping the Business section intact, it will enable to increase at least 40 seats, which will directly translate to a better revenue from the flight. It will also probably be essential if they are to break even in 2010 as planned.

Conclusion and the Future

With evolving of Premium Economy, it appears that 10 abreast Economy seating is to become the new norm for 777s. Some people will insist on the space, but will not be ready to pay for it. At the end of the day, fare will be what appeals to the majority of the passengers.
The kind of aviation enthusiast that checks SeatGuru before they board or find the aircraft type is still rare and most passengers will not know which aircraft that they fly.
As noted earlier, the market segment that the airline caters for plays a part too.
In this economic climate, most passengers have become extra fare-conscious. Although one might argue that this trend might change after the end of the recession, it seems unlikely with the ever increasing number of new LCCs. This might force legacy airlines to either create new LCC subsidiaries or to turn themselves into LCCs. And obviously, most will have to opt to the latter, ie – going to the so called cattle class .

At the end of the day, what you earn is all that matters and the most expensive real state is the space in an aircraft.

Open to discussion.