Finally A Customer Focused Move?

[PHX PHLyer]

The order to apply for slot allocations between the US and Colombia started just this week. I was reading the US application, and in the exhibits towards the end, it showed all of the connecting flights Southbound and Northbound out of Charlotte to other US points. It gave the flight number, route, arrival/departure time, aircraft operated, and number of seats. Every time that the E175 was listed as a connection option, the number of seats said 78. Now I am about 100% positive that these rolled out in an all coach configuration with 86 seats. By my calculation....if the E175s are to have 78 seats.....this must be accomplished by adding first class to them. 6-9 FC seats seems like the number to get you 78 total seats. I am praying this is not a typo...and that this will actually come to fruition....but why else would they have all E175s as having 78 seats???!!!

Finally, a good, sound, customer-oriented move.

 

[EMBFA]

Untrue. Tempe's probably confused. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite, Republic is adding rows to the E170s that formerly has 72 seats, that may be where they get a 78 number.

One only has to look at usairways.com fleet pictures to realize they are pretty cluless, particularly on Express aircraft. They had an E170 with Express titles that was supposed to be a mainline E190, and showed a CRJ200 as both a 700 and a 900. They had something wrong with the Dash 8 too. I wouldn't put too much stock into the fact that Tempe is completely lost.

 

[PHX PHLyer]

Untrue. Tempe's probably confused. In fact, it's pretty much the opposite, Republic is adding rows to the E170s that formerly has 72 seats, that may be where they get a 78 number.

I checked that. All E170s listed still had 72 seats. Besides...the maximum amount of seats that can be stuffed into an E170 is 76.

 

[EMBFA]

Ok then, I'm wrong. Look for your business traveler oriented airline to add those first class seats onto an Express aircraft. They didn't even want to put them on the mainline E190.

 

[zethya]

I checked that. All E170s listed still had 72 seats. Besides...the maximum amount of seats that can be stuffed into an E170 is 76.

Actually the maximum amount of seats that can be stuffed into an E170 is 80, with 70-78 being a common single class configuration.

 

[PHX PHLyer]

Ok then, I'm wrong. Look for your business traveler oriented airline to add those first class seats onto an Express aircraft. They didn't even want to put them on the mainline E190.

I mean...I'll believe it when I see it....and it definitely could have been a typo or they could be confused....but its definitely possible.

The E190 would always have had FC seats. The reason that it is in an 11/88 config is to maximize the 2 FA rule. If in a cramped all coach configuration the E190 sat 100....then you can nearly be guaranteed that they would have gone all coach....it was just lucky for the customer that the E190 is the size it is and the "customer focused move" to put in 11 FC seats just happened to be the most economical for the company.

I would say that adding FC to the E175 would be more of a competitive move against the likes of NW, DL, and UA...who now all have FC in their larger regional jets. I am not naive enough to think that US is proactively seeking to please the cutomer with this move.

 

[EMBFA]

Zethya, you're correct. The configurations on all of the E170/175/190/195 aircraft can be changed by removing the fwd galley or the fwd closet or adjusting the seat pitch. Highest capacity on a 170 is 78 (RP is going to 76 or 78, half of the fleet is done already). Max on a 175 is 86 which of course they have now.

The 190 can be configured up to 114 seats, or a standard 94 or 98 in dual class. The new US, of course, chose a particularly chintzy configuration with a disproportionate amount of FC seats. This is in order to keep the capacity under 100 so they won't require a third F/A, while still pushing it to the limit within that parameter. Unsurprisingly they specified there be no closet (hence the odd, gaping space in front of 2A), and no G2 galley which would be across from the existing (G1) Fwd galley. I suspect the old US would have gone with an 8/86=94 config with both the wardrobe and second part of the galley up front. The original seating plan for the mainline/MDA 170s was for 6/64=70, which was scrapped for 72Y, likely because they knew they planned to outsource them to Express.

The longer 195 seats anywhere from 106 to 122.