British Airways to squeeze extra 52 seats onto Boeing 777 flights

Recently UNITED's 737-800's had the rear bathrooms replaced (Slimline Bathrooms :) -
And pushed them back into to the rear galley - also changing the FA jump seats to
Install another row - and the only gain is what ? More pissed off flight crews who have less room to work and more BS from the cheap seats -

I loved flying on BA because of the extra space, but as a (ahem) larger person, sounds like they are going to make it just as uncomfortable as every other airline.

On the plus side, they will be handing out a complimentary packet of saltines to enjoy our sardines with.

It is obvious that the bean-counters and executives at these airlines don't fly in steerage class, and seating engineers are 5 ft. midgets. Even though retired and wanting to travel, I've cancelled plans for several trips, stayed in-country and driven my car.

During a recent trip through the big Boeing assembly plant in Everett, Washington, the question of seating came up (obviously a consumer concern) and the guide said that the aircraft are given to customers with NO seating (other than the pilots of course) and seats are installed by individual airlines.

Why is BA joining the sardinebcan club?

BA will also increase staff on aircraft to help with more passengers.......not.

Forget the seat issue, what about more lavatories. My worst nightmare; a morning cup of coffee and "OCCUPIED"!

Karma is the nearby article about the BA CEO not knowing that LHR expansion would take out his HQ!

There will be larger entertainment screens as well. Did you ever try to watch a movie on a larger screen 6 inches from you face? Air France has a few B777-200 with 316 seats, and that is torture, and BA wants to squeeze in 332? That's ridiculous.

Some decades ago, I took a quick hop from London Heathrow to Paris Charles De Gaulle, seated in Business Class. Entering INTO and exiting OUT of the seats was quite the challenge as it felt as if I were spelunking, having to nearly crawl about my seat. The leg room was tighter than any flights I had taken in coach previously. I can now only imagine the seating situation on the triple seven with this cramming of more seats.

216 to 252 is an increase of 36 seats. Where are the other 16 seats?

Ahhh man.. come on.. next we will be book cargo seating or install wing lockers.. the Lavatories are WAT to small for the average person to do their business.. hell with, I'll drive...

That will sure mess up the weight and balance! Can hear the Captain's announcement now: "Sorry folks -- with our increase in passenger seating we will not be able to serve drinks or meals aboard this flight since we need a full fuel load to reach our destination." Overhead luggage storage is really going to be tight.

I love to fly BA and do it often but they should take into account the counfort of their economic class passengers. Respect our safety space and yes more bathroom. Maybe we should pay extra to go to the bathroom?

As a somewhat frequent flier, I can recommend www.seatguru.com for very concise information about nearly all commercial flight seating. This assumes that the aircraft type is known in advance of booking the flight...!

Happy seating.

John

It will get to the point where customers will be willing to pay another $10 a seat to recover respectable leg room. I'd pay extra for the extra room, but there are so few such seats available that they are all gone by the time I buy my ticket.

A number of years ago I got a tour of the demo center for 787 cabin layouts at Boeing. They had some nice setups there even for coach. They went on about how much nicer the coach class on a 787 is going to be. I said "These are nice setups, but no US airline is ever going to configure their aircraft like that!"

Seat are BFE (buyer furnished equipment). The airline chooses their layout and seats from a variety of manufacturers and sends them to Boeing for installation at the factory. Boeing does not supply any passenger seating or furnishings.

A couple of years ago someone in the US Congress tried to pass a law that would specify minimum seating requirements (e.g. width, pitch, etc.). It never got anywhere.

So British Airways has officially announced that people are now cattle for economy??

It's the pax that're being squeezed...this isn't an improvement.

British Airways is just following the trend, even Qatar Airways is jumping on the bandwagon of 10 across seating in economy. The only airline I know of that does not join in is Turkish Airways, they recently overhauled the interior of their B777-300ERs and kept the original 9 across seating. Maybe someone else knows of other airlines that keep the original seating?

I might be a very unlucky person, but my dozens of flights on board BA in the past have been among the worst in my life! Now, they'll be to avoid totally!
Amazingly, I flew other cheaper British Airlines like BMI, Virgin and Thompson and they were incomparably better!
Is that the 'civil servant' syndrome? What a shame! The British flag carrier....

It is unfortunate that airlines continue to ruin the reputation of well designed aircraft by reducing the pitch to ram more seats into economy. My wife and I were looking forward to our first 787 flight on Air Canada and it was not any different from other overcrowded economy rides in older aircraft. BA will ruin the rep of the 777 as well with this move. I am glad BA isn't a member of the Star Alliance.

They are members

Remind me... no more flights on BAC.

Just wait. Luckily to aren't paying a high price for deployed troops seating. On R&R flight it's commercial contracts. One time a little over 5 foot guy that must of gotten a waiver to join looked at me when we were sitting down and said look at this and I'm real short. He had his tail pushed all the way back in his seat and his knees were still hitting the seat in front of him.

sorry Ian BA is NOT a STAR Alliance member

If I can't pronounce it, I won't eat it!
If I can't see it, I won't touch it!
If I can't fit in it, I won't fly in it!
Boeing or not going is out the door if they start this crap.
When will the freak's start adding planes instead of seats?
Aircraft manufactures should lower there GTW to stop over crowding!

Ian: Check it out. British Airways is a member of the One World Alliance. You must have a computer. It doesn't take long to get your facts right

Will someone raise the voice and say enough is enough and let economy class pax have little space to enjoy?

Note To Myself: Add British Airways to my list of crap airlines from whom I vow never to buy a ticket. The last one I added was Air France. At least partially at fault are the aircraft manufacturers, particularly, Boeing. During the past fifty years, the airplane interior design hasn't changed much at all. The Boeing 737 I flew in 1968 had the same layout and same refrigerator-size latrine as their latest ones. The legroom is gone, and the galley isn’t needed anymore since you don't need a galley to dole out peanuts. Seems like every improvement they made benefited their corporate customers, not the flying end-user. In other words, over 50 years, Boeings creativity had focused on making us passengers more miserable. And they succeeded. The worst abomination they perpetrated on the unsuspecting public was that 777 cattle wagon. With a 14-hour+ range, sardine seating, and the worst seats ever, that body-torturing piece of crap belongs on the scrap heap. The only thing missing is troughs bolted under the windows. Of course, the airline bean counters love it.