WestJet will be adding more seats to some of its planes beginning this month — at the cost of moving some economy seats closer together and limiting their ability to recline.
The changes, rolled out as part of a “full cabin refresh” of certain Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 planes, will replace these aircraft’s standard economy seating with “fixed recline” seats. It will also reduce the distance between some economy seats and add six new seats in the rear of the planes.
The airline plans to reconfigure 43 planes that previously belonged to budget airlines Swoop, Lynx and Sunwing — which make up about a third of WestJet’s narrow-body fleet — in this fashion, with the first overhauled plane expected to enter service before the end of the month, said April Crane, WestJet’s vice-president of communications and engagement.
“We hope to have the majority in before the end of the year … but the timelines are not exact,” Crane told the Star. It’s “too early to say” whether the rest of WestJet’s fleet will be affected, she said.
Crane said the overhaul is about “designing the cabin to be modern, consistent and offer choice around what is important to certain people at various price points.” But some aviation experts have slammed the changes as being a money grab. Here’s why.
WestJet to introduce denser seating on some planes
Some experts have raised their eyebrows about WestJet’s shrinking of the pitch — the distance between one point on a plane seat and the same point on the seat in front or behind it — of some economy seats.
“My primary concern about WestJet’s announcement is the impact on tall passengers, who cannot fit into a reduced pitch seat that WestJet would be offering,” Gabor Lukacs, president and founder of Canadian non-profit Air Passenger Rights, told the Star over email.
“WestJet may be trying to force these passengers to buy higher (cost) seats, and that is inappropriate — a passenger who buys a ticket should be able to do so with full assurance that the airline will provide a seat that accommodates their physical size.”
In response, Crane said the new layout is “inclusive, it’s not one element. The seat pitch is not synonymous with personal space.” The new seats will also be slimmer and will “probably give you back an inch,” she noted.
According to the specifications for the new Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 layouts, economy seats in rows 10 to 12 will still have the previous pitch of 76.2 cm. But rows 15 to 19 will have a reduced pitch of 73.6 cm, and rows 20 to 31 will be reduced further to 71.1 cm.
The slimmer seats and reduced pitch will allow the aircraft to fit another row of six seats into the back, which one expert said was the real motivation for the changes.
“The airlines are looking for opportunities to increase the revenue base of their operations,” said John Gradek, a faculty lecturer in supply networks and aviation at Montreal’s McGill University. He called WestJet’s changes a money grab. “They’re looking to increase their capacity to accommodate more passengers, and WestJet’s solution is to decrease the space for each passenger.”
WestJet’s “fixed recline” seats
Then there are the fixed recline seats. In the former layout, economy seats can recline by five centimetres. The new seats will recline by just 1.5 cm.
Crane said half of WestJet’s customers, when asked, said they preferred this change as it stopped others from encroaching on their space.
But Gradek sees the move as the latest in a global trend of “unbundling,” where airlines charge extra for services that were previously included.
For example, last year, WestJet announced that passengers in its lowest-priced “Ultrabasic” ticket tier will no longer be allowed carry-on baggage unless flying certain routes, and must pay extra to check their bags instead. A decade earlier, in 2014, WestJet announced that customers would be charged for their first checked bag — a service that was previously free.
Now, WestJet is unbundling the ability to recline further than 1.5 cm, hoping customers in economy will pay extra and upgrade their seats for that privilege, Gradek said.
“I think this is probably near the end of the line of what they can, in fact, unbundle,” he continued. “There’s not much left to unbundle. The seat cushions, maybe.”
But Crane defended the airline’s business model, saying: “People sometimes forget that the fundamental strength of our business model is not about making money on fees. It’s about getting more people flying … Our fundamental objective is to make air travel more affordable so more Canadians fly.”
The “intent” of this overhaul is to reduce ticket prices, Crane said. But because the reconfigured planes aren’t flying right now, “it’s hard to speak to” whether prices will be lower in practice.
Other changes
WestJet’s new layout will also convert two rows of economy seats to Extended Comfort seats, bringing that section up from 24 to 36 seats, the airline said in a previous release. These seats will be separated from the rest of economy class by a new divider.
Economy flyers can upgrade to these seats, which can recline and boast extra legroom, among other privileges, for an additional fee.
WestJet will also continue installing Wi-Fi in its planes, which will be free for WestJet Rewards members. It’s expected to hit all its Boeing 737-800 and MAX-8 aircraft by the end of this year.
The new economy seats will feature “seatback contouring to maximize legroom (as well as) ergonomically designed, contoured bottom and back cushions,” while the 12 new Premium seats at the front, the same model as WestJet’s 787-9 Dreamliner fleet, will boast ergonomically contoured seat cushions and “reclining seat backs and a large headrest with four-way adjustment capability.”
In the end, Gradek and Lukacs said WestJet’s changes, as well as the global trend toward unbundling, call for greater government oversight on the airline industry.
“The overarching concern I have is the lack of meaningful government intervention to deal with airline junk fees,” Lukacs said. “But it is not happening due to the government’s cosy relationship with the airlines.”
“There really is no oversight for the price of unbundling,” Gradek added, saying there’s no regulation dictating where the extra fees can be introduced or how much they could increase over time. “They could charge 10 bucks for your carry-on bag this week. By the end of the month, it could be $30. Next year, it could be $50.
“I think it’s time for the regulators to step in and talk about, you know, what’s an economy fare actually supposed to get you?”
