Basic economy: seats that are low on comfort but big on savings

Few like to be crammed in an uncomfortable seat with little leg space. But what if it helps you get a ticket that is up to 40 per cent cheaper? Does saving money win over lack of comfort?

Delta Air Line, one of America’s biggest airlines, and a few of its peers surely hope that their fliers say yes. Earlier this year, Delta added one more segment of seats and called it basic economy. Some call it economy minus.

It is not difficult to understand the ‘minus’ in the name. The seat comes minus options: no seat selection, you can not cancel/refund or upgrade after 24 hours of reservation, no free hand bag and you pay for food and entertainment.

If that doesn’t reduce the joy of flying, this is what it makes worse. The seat pitch, or the leg room between the seats will be the lowest and range between 28 and 30 inches. You are as good as in a match box sized cell but for putting up with such inconvenience, you get never-heard-of low fares. 

The airlines claim that this is the only way to counter ultra-low cost airlines. It doesn’t matter that this service comes at a time when most airlines in the industry are making profits because of low oil prices.

After Delta and a few low cost carriers, other big names of US aviation such as United Airlines and American Airlines also plan to introduce similar seat configuration for its customers looking for super cheap fares.

Saving inches While an economy seat’s width ranges between 17.5 inches and 18 inches, a business class seat is between 18 inches and 22 inches. A first class seat's width can go up to 35 inches. Compare these to a seat in a movie theatre: they are all of 25 inches. An economy minus is lesser than all of them, depending on the airline. A few of the airlines might keep it same as that of the smallest economy seat but the pitch may be lesser than the economy.

  Over the years, American airlines have been reducing the pitch as well as the width of the seat. According to a 2014 report in USA Today, the seat width has gone down from about 20 inches to about 17.5 inches of an economy seat during the last two decades. Over the same period, the pitch size has decreased from 31–33 inches to 30–32 inches. It doesn’t help that an average American’s hip has kept on increasing.

Obesity is becoming a problem among Indians too. But will it stop India’s low cost airlines and their full service peers from taking a shot at economy minus?

Though it might just work among bargain-hunting Indians, Vistara’s Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer Sanjiv Kapoor says, “We find that more and more Indians are looking to enhance their flying experience and are willing to spend marginally higher to travel more comfortably.” But will his counterparts in low cost carriers IndiGo and SpiceJet agree?

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