United bucks the big-plane trend, to offer legroom, places for carry-ons
United Airlines has started service to Chicago from Des Moines on one of its newest regional jets, offering more room for legs and roller bags, and self-serve treats for first-class customers.The Bombardier CRJ-550 is United’s first 50-passenger jet with a separate first-class cabin, and the airline added a built-in kiosk where hungry and thirsty first-class passengers who can’t wait for flight attendants to serve them can grab something on the way in. The first-class cabin has bigger-than-usual legroom.
Each passenger on the jet will find a spot for a roller bag aboard, thanks to added storage along the floor of the cabin.
United took 20 seats out of a 70-passenger jet to free space, hoping to lure customers from other airlines while serving its loyal fans.
In addition to 10 first-class seats, the jet has 20 Economy Plus seats with a half-foot or so of extra legroom. The rest of the area has a standard configuration, but with new colors and new seats.
Taking seats out seems counterintuitive, but Nick Depner, director of Midwest sales for United, in an interview said United hopes to make up that revenue by selling more in first class. Overall, fares will be set by demand.
Is this a trend that might lead to fewer seats on other United planes? “We’ll have to see,” Depner said. “It’s definitely bucking the trend of what the rest of the industry is doing as far as packing more seats in the aircraft.”
In the past two decades, many of the airlines had given up bringing big planes into Des Moines, opting instead for regional jets that had fewer seats but were cheaper to operate. In the past couple of years, and continuing now, airlines have been replacing older jets with ones that have been on the big side. In a place like Des Moines, where customers fill the vast majority of seats offered, going to a smaller jet for the Chicago runs bucks a national trend toward bigger jets thought to improve the economics of flights.
Depner said the experiment had a lot to do with customers’ complaints that they don’t want to wait in the cold sky bridge for their gate-checked bags they had intended to carry on before the plane filled.
“That was the number one thing we heard,” he said.
Of course, legroom is a much sought-after perk of air travel. The new jet, 18 feet longer than United’s other 50-passenger planes, has more legroom per seat than any other 50-passenger jet, Depner said.
All flights between Des Moines and Chicago will have premium service available, he added. The first-class cabin is unusual for a plane that small.
“The 50-passenger size is the right number of seats for the right time a day for the market,” Depner said. “In the future, you are still going to see a lot of [bigger jets] flying out of Des Moines, but that is going to be in the morning and the early afternoons and evenings. Those are peak travel times that connect to other flights.” A 1 p.m. flight might use the 50-passenger planes for quick trips to Chicago, perhaps returning the same day.
Depner said the move gives Des Moines passengers a choice of going first class to Chicago, and on their connecting flights. “This plane in particular gives us the opportunity to offer that premium product from start to finish with their journey,” he said. “They’re not just going to Chicago. We have a ton of people who take absolute great advantage whether for work or pleasure of our international network,” including, for example, London and Tokyo.
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