British Airways Shrink Seat Space !

British Airways have announced that they are planning to squeeze an extra 52 seats on its Boeing 777, economy flights from London Gatwick in 2018.

Currently passengers will find nine economy seats in each row in the 777’s. But from 2018, there will be 10 seats fitted within the same space. The move would increase the population on board flights by up to a fifth and stretch current facilities further.

However, with all these changes BA will not be increasing the number of toilets on board and this will stay the same, currently there are 11, allowing for one for every 25 passengers. The latest move will bring that up to one for every 30 passengers.

The announcement was made by Chief Executive of BA’s parent company IAG, Willie Walsh. He stated that the move would allow the company to ‘lower the average cost per seat, charge a lower price and stimulate demand’. He said ‘We’re responding to a market opportunity’.

Not only that, only just the other week British Airways also announced that they have stopped serving free meals on flights of less than five hours on economy class passengers, which is just another cut back.

To be honest, with the way BA are going with all its cut backs of late it looks like they are becoming more like EasyJet/Ryanair where you have to pay for luggage/meals etc. I think a lot of people will be looking at other well-known Airlines on the market such as Virgin, who offer cheap flight prices but at least you can travel in comfort rather than being squashed like sardines and don’t have to pay extra for meals etc.

What’s your thought on this ?

Do you think BA are making a BIG mistake ?