Cathay Pacific Airways announced Friday that it would increase the number of economy class seats in its fleet of Boeing 777-300s in a bid to increase profits.
By replacing the current 3-3-3 seating configuration with a 3-4-3 configuration in economy, Cathay Pacific will fly an additional 1.4 million passengers a year, SCMP reports. Each economy seat will be as much as 1.3 to 17.2 inches narrower.
While economy class legroom will remain at 32 inches, the carrier said the new seats will have a bigger 12-inch in-flight entertainment screen, along with more personal storage and Wi-Fi (although whether passengers will be charged for the latter hasn’t been addressed).
The new 777s with extra seats are expected to begin operations from mid-2018.
The flight operator recently announced it had suffered a loss of HKD575 million in 2016 — the first loss since 2008 — affected by a plunge in business travel and the increasing number of budget regional carriers.
The airline first announced its plan to add more economy seats to its planes in October last year, but was criticized by tourism constituency Legislative Councillor Yiu Si-wing, who accused the company of sacrificing passengers’ comfort for profit, Oriental Daily reports. Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union chairwoman Dora Lai believed the overhaul would end up further damaging the quality of Cathay’s service.
