Skift Take
As travel comes back strong, airlines are doing everything they can to add capacity to their existing aircraft and roll out the red carpet for their premium customers.
One of the most debated questions in airline boardrooms is how to use real estate on aircraft to generate the most money.
Airlines have focused on providing more comforts to those paying high fares at the front of the plane. In coach, they continue to add more people in the same amount of space – a practice the industry calls “densification.”
Many premium airlines have decided to give up on first class altogether, making business class their most important cabin on international long-haul flights.
This comes after years of reduction in demand for first class around the globe. First class has been largely looked at as a privilege extended to actors and C-suite executives. But the exorbitant fare difference and evolution of business class to similar privacy standards has meant that first class often flies empty.
In the Middle East, Qatar Airways and Etihad are some of the airlines that no longer install first class on their newer aircraft.
In India, Jet Airways felt the pain of flying its Boeing 777s with an empty first class cabin. How