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Airlines begin buckling under pressure to improve cabin seating

SFGATE contributor Jim Glab rounds up air travel and airport news for our weekly column Routes

By Jim Glab

In this week’s airline news, Alaska Airlines and possibly JetBlue will add more front cabin seats in the next couple of years; Delta hints that it may soon announce a big innovation in business class fares; Frontier Airlines begins new routes out of San Jose Mineta next week; Alaska Airlines plans to trim some Bay Area flights in the winter; United adjusts its international schedules from SFO and LAX, plus route news from Air Canada, Aeromexico, China Airlines, KLM, Fiji Airways, Avianca, and American; Air France and Delta say the Summer Olympics in Paris seem to be putting off more travelers than they attract; TSA is still intercepting 18 guns every day from passengers’ carry-ons; Long Beach Airport reopens its Historic Terminal after a big renovation; American Express cuts the ribbon on a new Centurion Lounge at Reagan Washington National.

U.S. airlines are seeing strong consumer demand for premium seating these days, and Alaska Airlines has announced plans to increase its front-cabin capacity. Meanwhile, reports are circulating this week that JetBlue might do the same. Alaska said that beginning in September, customers will start to see more First Class and Premium Class seats “across more than 200 of our aircraft, including [Boeing 737] 900ERs, 800s and MAX9s.” (Earlier this year, the carrier retrofitted its regional fleet, installing 400,000 Premium Class seats to its Embraer E175 jets.) The work is slated to start this fall with 79 of Alaska’s 737-900ERs, which will boost their Premium Cabin capacity from 24 to 30 seats; starting next year, the same Premium Class expansion is scheduled to begin on 80 737 Max 9 aircraft, and the First Class cabin on 59 737-800s is slated to increase from 12 to 16 seats. Alaska’s Premium Class seating has 4 more inches of legroom than the main cabin. 

Alaska didn’t say where it will get the extra space to expand the front cabins. On the View from the Wing blog, Gary Leff noted that the carrier’s 737-900ERs and 737 Max 9 aircraft will still have the same number of seat rows after their Premium Class refit, “with all of the changes in front of the emergency exit. That means the space comes by squeezing premium seating for the three inches needed to convert a row of regular coach to premium,” he said. And with the larger First Class cabins on the 737-800s, “we’ll almost certainly see reduced legroom in first class to fund it.”

At JetBlue, the airline’s highly regarded premium cabin branded as Mint service is only available on select routes such as transcontinental flights between California and the Northeast. But the Live and Let’s Fly blog said this week it has learned from “a well-placed source” that the airline has a plan to install a new service category called “Mini Mint” with domestic first class recliner seats in all its Airbus aircraft beginning in 2026. The refit of JetBlue’s fleet would reportedly install eight Mini Mint seats in its Airbus A220s and 12 in its A320 and A321neo aircraft. The new seats would recline up to 10 inches and would come with 36 to 37 inches of legroom.

“How will JetBlue be able to add Mini Mint seats without sacrificing the overall seat count?” Live and Let’s Fly asked. “Unfortunately, it plans to shrink legroom in economy class.” (Which JetBlue refers to as “core” seats.) “Core seats currently have 32 inches of pitch (i.e., the distance between seat rows, a standard measure of legroom), an industry best, that apparently will be sacrificed as Mini Mint seats are added.” 

Speaking of premium cabins, there’s a lot of industry buzz that Delta will soon announce a new strategy of offering “unbundled” business class fares — i.e., fares that will buy a business class seat, but without some of the perks and amenities normally included. According to multiple news reports, during a call with Wall Street airline analysts last week, Delta President Glen Hauenstein replied to a question about the rumor by saying: “We’ve talked conceptually about that. I think we’ll be giving you more details as we go, but we’re not ready to talk about the details of those plans moving forward.” He added cryptically that Delta’s annual Investor Day coming in November “should be very exciting” for those interested in the so-called “business lite” or “basic business” pricing concept. Like the basic economy fares that have become standard at major airlines, unbundled business class fares would presumably eliminate some standard inclusions like checked bags, seat assignments, food and beverage service, airport lounge access and priority check-in. 

Frontier Airlines returns to San Jose Mineta Airport next week as it plans to start service on five domestic routes there this summer. On July 22, the low-cost carrier plans to begin daily flights from SJC to Denver and San Diego. Then in mid-August, it is scheduled to add once-daily service to Los Angeles International, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Alaska Airlines plans to trim some San Francisco flights next winter, suspending its daily SFO-Fort Lauderdale service from Jan. 6 through March 18 and its SFO-Tampa flights Jan. 6 to March 21. Alaska’s SFO-Jackson Hole, Wyoming, route, which was due to begin Dec. 19, has been put off until May 17, and the carrier plans to suspend service from San Jose Mineta to Kauai from Jan. 5 through March 21, according to Aeroroutes.com. In southern California, American Airlines has decided to discontinue its new transcontinental flights between Miami and Orange County Airport in Santa Ana effective Aug. 5, according to the Points Guy.

The latest winter adjustments to United’s international schedules include some West Coast changes, according to Aeroroutes.com. Instead of cutting its San Francisco-Seoul service from two flights a day to one on Oct. 25 as previously planned, United plans to maintain double-daily service year-round. United’s SFO-Frankfurt schedule is slated to be cut from two daily flights to one from Jan. 6 to Feb. 12. At Los Angeles International, United has canceled plans to operate three weekly flights during the winter season to both Auckland and Brisbane, Aeroroutes said, but effective Oct. 26, LAX-Hong Kong service is scheduled to increase from one flight a day to two and United’s LAX-Shanghai schedule is slated to operate daily instead of four times a week.

In other international route news, the latest schedule update from Air Canada includes a seasonal suspension of its San Francisco-Edmonton service from Oct. 14 through April 30, and its San Diego-Montreal flights from Oct. 27 to April 30. According to Aeroroutes.com, Aeromexico’s fall schedule includes the temporary suspension of service from San Francisco, Sacramento and Fresno to Guadalajara, effective from the first week of September through Oct. 26. Aeromexico plans to reduce service on all three routes from seven flights a week to four starting Aug. 19. China Airlines this week become the third carrier to serve the increasingly crowded Seattle-Taipei route, operating five flights a week year-round. Next year, KLM plans to boost its SFO-Amsterdam schedule from daily flights to 10 a week starting March 30.

Elsewhere, Fiji Airways — which already flies from its Nadi base to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Honolulu — has applied for rights to add American’s Dallas/Fort Worth hub as its next U.S. gateway. Fiji is an associate member of AA’s Oneworld alliance and expects to gain full membership within the next year. The carrier also plans to adopt American’s AAdvantage loyalty program as its own. The Colombian carrier Avianca plans to introduce service in late October from United’s Chicago O’Hare hub to Bogota. Avianca is a member of United’s Star Alliance. When the winter season begins in late October, American plans to suspend one of its three daily Los Angeles-London Heathrow flights, as well as its daily Phoenix-London service. 

The prestigious games are set to kick off on July 26 and continue through August 11, and historically they have drawn huge crowds of visitors from all over the world. While the Games may attract thousands of spectators to the city, the 2024 event seems to be putting off more visitors than it is bringing in. The host airline, Air France, reported this month that passenger traffic to and from Paris during the Games is not doing as well as other major European cities. “International markets show a significant avoidance of Paris,” Air France said. “Travel between the city and other destinations is also below the usual June-August average.” The carrier said it expects this trend to have a “negative impact” of $174 million to $196 million on its summer unit revenues. Traffic “is expected to normalize after the Olympic Games,” Air France added.

Ed Bastian, the CEO of Air France’s joint venture partner Delta, said his airline also expects its revenues to suffer a $100 million hit because of the Olympics. Bastian said on CNBC it seems that the carnival-like atmosphere that the Summer Olympics bring to a city is a turnoff for the other types of travelers who normally flock to Paris during the peak summer season. “Unless you’re going to the Olympics, people aren’t going to Paris — very few are,” Bastian said in an interview. “Business travel, you know, other type of tourism is potentially going elsewhere.”

Despite all the warnings and the potential penalties for violations, U.S. air travelers continue to put firearms in their carry-on bags at a surprising rate. According to the Transportation Security Administration’s most recent report, airport security screeners intercepted 3,269 guns during the first six months of this year. “The total represents an average of 18 firearms detected per day at TSA checkpoints; more than 94% were loaded,” TSA said. That’s almost the same number as the total for January through June of 2023, which could be considered a sign of progress, since the number of passengers screened during that period this year was 7% higher than last year. If you “forgot” you had a pistol in your carry-on, TSA won’t take it away from you; instead, they’ll call the local cops to come and take it. “Law enforcement may also arrest or cite the passenger, depending on local law. TSA may impose a civil penalty up to almost $15,000, and for the first offense, passengers who bring a firearm to a security checkpoint will lose TSA PreCheck eligibility for five years,” TSA said. If you must bring a gun on your trip, it must be unloaded, locked in a hard-sided case, and put in your checked luggage. You must also notify the airline at check-in.

The Historic Terminal (yes, that’s what it’s called) at Southern California’s Long Beach Airport, which opened in 1942, has been shuttered for the past year for an $18 million renovation, and now the building is scheduled to reopen to the public with an open house on July 27. “Highlights of the project include: seismic retrofits; the restoration of the iconic west entrance, which has been closed for decades; new west bay windows; preservation of the building’s iconic wall clock and original signage; the uncovering of the full mosaic masterwork by artist Grace Clements; updated restrooms; modernized administrative offices; the conversion of the former ticketing area into space for car rental services; and other improvements,” the airport said.

In other airport news, American Express just opened its newest Centurion Lounge, this one at Reagan Washington National. The 12,000-square-foot lounge is located post-security in DCA’s Terminal 2, past the South Security Checkpoint. The facility has floor-to-ceiling windows with views of the airfield; amenities include a conference room, a phone room, dedicated workstations, a shower suite and free high-speed Wi-Fi. Food service is coordinated by three prominent chefs, including Ravi Kapur of San Francisco’s Liholiho Yacht Club, who also oversees the Centurion Lounge menu at San Francisco International Airport. The new DCA lounge also offers “a specialty drink menu and wine list reflective of the DC-metro area,” American Express said. The company offers unlimited access to Centurion Lounges for holders of its American Express Centurion, Platinum, Business Platinum and Corporate Platinum cards.