United Airlines ditches more economy seats for bigger premium cabins

LOS ANGELES — United Airlines‘ formula for higher profits: fewer, but better seats.

The country’s second-most profitable carrier after Delta Air Lines on Tuesday unveiled new cabin designs, including on some of its smallest planes, that feature more premium seating options and fewer in standard coach.

The differences in airfare for those seats can be vast. For example, a flight between United’s hub at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey and San Francisco in the first week of May is going for $423 in standard coach and $5,556 in the carrier’s top-tier Polaris class on a Boeing 757.

Even with the spike in fuel prices, United’s executives have said in recent weeks that demand remains strong, noting that premium-travel demand has outshined the main cabin.

“The main cabin is also improving, and we’ve seen very strong demand across the board for United in Q1, but premium did lead the way yet again in the quarter, and continues to do so,” Andrew Nocella, United’s chief commercial officer, told reporters last week.

United plans to introduce a subfleet of narrow-body Airbus A321neo jets dubbed the “Coastliner” for transcontinental flights that will have 20 Polaris seats, which can recline into a bed. Each Polaris seat will have aisle access.

Those jets will also have 12 premium economy seats and 36 extra legroom seats on board, with the rest regular economy. United said it removed three seats from the plane’s standard configuration to install a snack bar at the back of the plane.

Current layouts of the plane don’t have premium economy, but they do have 57 extra legroom seats and 123 seats in standard economy, along with 20 that are first-class recliners, not the lie-flat Polaris seats.

United said the first Coastliners will begin flying this summer and it will have 40 of them by the start of 2028.

The airline also announced its configuration for its longer-range Airbus A321XLR aircraft, which will replace some older Boeing 757s. That layout also includes the 20 Polaris suites, 12 premium economy and 34 in extra legroom. The plane will debut this summer, and United said it could operate on some of its existing routes to Spain, France, Portugal and Brazil.

United will also add a seven-seat first-class cabin to its Bombardier CRJ-200 jets for a total of 41 seats on board, compared with the current 51-seat layout, which only has one cabin.

The changes are part of an ongoing trend for airlines, which are dedicating more of the scarce real estate on planes to premium seats, as the growth from those higher-end options outpaces sales from regular economy.

Last year, United unveiled an upgraded Polaris suite for long-haul flights on its Boeing 787 Dreamliners that includes the “Polaris Studio,” which is larger than previous models and has 27-inch 4K screens as well as an ottoman for guests.

United’s chief rival, Delta, has said it expects premium revenue to overtake main cabin sales this year. That carrier said last month that starting in May, the first of seven of its new Airbus A321neos will have 44 seats in first class, more than double the 20 it usually has.

The demand has been so high for plush new suites and other premium seats that the supply chain can’t keep up. The bottlenecks have even delayed delivery of aircraft, CNBC has reported.

Delta said the big first-class cabin on the A321neo is a medium-term measure, “intended to be in service for a limited time as Delta awaits delivery of flatbed suites that will ultimately be installed on these aircraft.” 

Meanwhile, United has been eyeing lie-flat seats for some of its newer narrow-body jets for years.

CEO Scott Kirby told reporters in August 2018 that the carrier was planning to offer lie-flat seats on new Boeing 737 Max 10 aircraft, though that plane still hasn’t been certified and is years behind schedule.

Other airlines are also adding higher-end seats.

JetBlue Airways, which was a pioneer in offering lie-flat seats and suites on its narrow-body Airbus fleet, plans to offer a less elaborate domestic first-class cabin later this year. Southwest Airlines recently debuted extra-legroom seats on its fleet of Boeing 737s, ending its decades of standard seating throughout its cabin.

Budget carriers Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines are also planning to add roomier seats.