United Airlines is reportedly working on a new Economy product that uses a fixed tray table to block out the middle seat in a row of three in order to reduce the number of flight attendants that are required to work on its soon-to-debut ‘Coastliner’ Airbus A321neo jets.
The Chicago-based carrier plans to take delivery of the first of 50 specially configured Coastliner airplanes later this year. The aircraft will be used to operate premium transcontinental routes between San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Newark, and will replace its aging fleet of Boeing 757s.
United exploring new Economy seat type with blocked middle seat
by u/Floppy-Over-Drive in unitedairlines
The Coastliner subfleet of Airbus A321neos will be configured with a total of 161 seats, which includes 20 fully lie-flat Polaris Business Class seats, 12 Premium Plus seats, and 129 economy class seats.
By way of comparison, United’s standard Airbus A321neo configuration features a total of 200 seats, whereas a subfleet of Airbus A321XLR aircraft, which can fly further thanks to an additional fuel tank, will be limited to just 150 seats.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requires commercial passenger planes with more than 100 seats to have two flight attendants, and then an additional flight attendant for each unit (or part of a unit) of 50 passengers above 100.
For example, the standard United Airbus A321 used on ordinary domestic routes requires four flight attendants, but the United Airbus A321XLR will only require three flight attendants. Meanwhile, the Airbus A321 Coastliner will ordinarily require four flight attendants – two for the first 100 passenger seats, a third for the next 50, and a fourth for the 11 additional seats that make up a unit of 50.
This is where things get interesting. It is now being reported that United is working on a new Economy Class product that would block out the middle seat of a row of three with a tray table that is locked in place across the seat cushion.
The concept is incredibly similar to the ‘Euro Business’ tray tables that are used to block out the middle seat in Business Class on many short-haul British Airways flights. When the middle seat is required, the tray table can be unlocked and stored underneath the seat.
Reddit user ‘Floppy Over Drive’ shared an image of what the tray table would look like, explaining in their post: “Got word from a buddy at HDQ that says United is working on a new seat product that will feature a permablocked middle seat in Economy.”
The post added: “This seat would debut on the A321XLR and possibly Coastliner. This is born out of necessity to align with minimum flight attendant requirements without requiring additional headcount.”
United could use this concept for one of two reasons:
- Permanently reduce the required flight attendant headcount and monetize the concept of a blocked middle seat for regular Economy travelers.
- Utilise the blocked middle seat on a case-by-case basis where it is looking to reduce the flight attendant headcount or in situations where it is swapping out the A321XLR with the Coastliner.
United was contacted for comment, but the airline did not respond by the time of publication.
Interestingly, flight attendants’ requirements in the United States differ greatly from those in the European Union and many other jurisdictions, where the required headcount isn’t solely based on how many passenger seats a plane has.
In Europe, the A321 requires a minimum of five flight attendants, regardless of the passenger seating arrangement, although, with this in mind, airlines in the region will generally go out of their way to maximize how many seats they have on board.
Meanwhile, the smaller A320 requires a minimum of four flight attendants, whereas many U.S. carriers keep the passenger seat count down to a maximum of 150, so they can staff these aircraft with just three crew members.
