The Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat
Canada's WestJet may have just saved the world from the worst trend in commercial air travel
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” – T.S. Eliot
Innovations in commercial aviation over the past few decades have been largely aimed at getting bigger and fatter passengers into smaller and narrower seats.
How far can the world’s airlines possibly take this trend? Canada’s WestJet airline may have finally hit the limit.
The carrier recently backtracked on a grueling seat configuration after a viral video showed just how tightly it was packing its passengers.
The move made international headlines and prompted CBC, Canada’s national pubic broadcaster, to check in with Business Blunders for perspective.
Click here to listen to CBC’s Cost of Living, a show you might find similar to NPR’s Planet Money.
I was so happy to get this call on Wednesday because I thought Canada was really mad at me.
Well, not me, per se, but some of my fellow countrymen who voted for a global trade war and nasty threats to forcibly annex the Great White North. And you know what? They didn’t even bring it up. They were really nice. If only we could be so nice, aye. (Thank you producer Danielle Nerman, senior producer Jennifer Keene and show host Paul Haavardsrud for your hospitality.)
I have been ranting about airline seats getting tighter and people getting wider for decades. In 2006, I outraged many airline “customers of size” by proposing that passengers should get charged by the pound.
Read More: On a plane, niceness is outweighed. (Denver Post, 2006)
I was being sarcastic. But at least one airline Samoa Air, actually tried this in 2013. It didn’t work out so well. The airline no longer exists.
Maybe Ozempic will help. But the solution should be wider seats and more legroom. With airlines under endless competitive and financial pressures, though, the trend has gone the other way.
You don’t need to take a single business course to observe that any move that makes customers’ lives more miserable is bound to have consequences.
In this case, WestJet learned the reputational damage from tighter seats would result in losses that the revenue from six additional seats could not offset.
By adding just one more row to some of its 174-set cabins, the seats were so tight, WestJet risked becoming the next Worst Jet.
CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech didn’t exactly strike a graceful rollback, but at least he rolled back.
“WestJet tried seat pitches that are popular with many airlines around the globe as they serve to provide affordable airfares,” he said in a press release.
No, Alexis. Airline seats that do not recline were never popular on any route in the world.
“As an entrepreneurial airline founded on making air travel affordable to Canadians, it’s in our DNA to try new products,” he continued.
No. A cramped cabin is not a new product. It’s less of an old product. If this is in your DNA get gene therapy.
“At the same time, it is just as important to react quickly if they don’t meet the needs of our guests,” he said.
Yes. That’s the ticket. Hooray! You’re on to something now, Alexis. It takes a CEO.
Now any airline wondering how much tighter it can configure its seats can get the specs from WestJet. It has discovered the breaking point.
Canada may have stopped an ugly trend that might have ended tragically in what I call the cord-wood cabin configuration, stacking passengers vertically for the most efficient use of space.
Thank you WestJet. Thank you Canada. And thank you to Alberta’s Amanda Schmidt, the WestJet passenger who posted the viral video.
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Fascinatingbreakdown of how reputational risk finally hit a ceiling for WestJet. The idea that six extra seats couldn't offset the PR disaster is a textbook example of short-term thinking biting back. I flew WestJet a couple years ago and the seat situation was already borderline, so this was probly inevitable. What's wild is how theCEO's rollback statement still tried to spin it as innovation rather than a miscalculation.
Reading your substack after the cost of living podcast! Canadian here, and I’ve preferred flying westjet over air canada. The staff seemed friendlier and more organized. However, that was yeeeeaaaarrrs ago. So thank you for this post and to Amanda for the video! Have to rethink the next time we travel out to bc to visit family!