In the wake of a backlash sparked by a viral video, WestJet has cancelled a new seat configuration that squeezed an extra row on board many of its planes and left passengers with less legroom.
In a major about-face, the country’s second-largest carrier announced on Friday it would return the cabins to a more spacious layout — a pricey reinstallation process — after harsh feedback from travellers and employees.
In a phone interview from Calgary, CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said he made the final call when the blowback began to show up in surveys and sales figures.
“We saw that this was all trending in the wrong direction,” he said of data on customer loyalty and guest satisfaction.
“It just didn’t land the way we were anticipating … and that’s why we’re correcting it.”
The overhaul will likely be completed by year’s end, he said.
Already installed on nearly two-dozen of WestJet’s Boeing 737s, the non-reclining seats in a majority of the cabin’s economy section featured the smallest amount of legroom on any large Canadian carrier.
The configuration, which had been planned for at least 20 more aircraft — 43 all told, or more than a quarter of the jet fleet — went on to draw national attention after a TikTok video showing the tight fit for passengers drew more than 1.1 million views.
Staff and travellers warned that the cramped cabin curtailed safety, particularly in the event of an evacuation, and hurt the customer experience.
WestJet has pointed out that the reconfiguration underwent a full certification process.
It plans to convert all of its tight-packed 180-seat jets to a 174-seat layout after receiving regulatory certification.
Fares could rise
The change could come with trade-offs for travellers, including a slight uptick in fares owing to the lower chair count.
“It sucks to have to pay more to fit into a seat. I get that. But also some people are just not well off financially enough to be able to afford more, and if they can have that cheaper option, why not?” said Andrew D’Amours, founder of flight deal site Flytrippers.
“But it is certainly very, very tiny.”
Whatever the effect on fares, the decision marks a direct response to customer feedback — and bad publicity.
“It’s one of the rare occasions where people’s voices and opinions have an actual impact on how airlines treat us,” D’Amours said.
Still, a push to win back disillusioned travellers could prove difficult.
“I’m still not convinced they won’t just start charging us a carry-on fee for our legs,” said Edmonton-based radio host Courtney Theriault in a social media post Friday, alluding to a quip in the viral video.
John Gradek, who teaches aviation management at McGill University, said WestJet will need to fix its dented reputation.
“They have to rebuild the brand,” he said.
“The social media onslaught was amazing, and people were basically saying, ‘That’s it, we’re done with WestJet, we’re walking.”‘
Union welcomes about face
Cabin crew also criticized the more claustrophobic quarters.
The union representing some 4,600 WestJet flight attendants previously said they faced “frustration, and even aggression,” from passengers for a layout they too opposed.
It welcomed the rollback announced on Friday.
“We remain hopeful that this signals a shift toward a more collaborative dialogue [with management] going forward,” said Alia Hussain, who chairs the WestJet contingent of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a news release about the move.
Currently, a dozen of the 22 rows in the planes’ economy class feature 28-inch pitch — the distance between one point on a seat and the same point on the seat in front — versus 29- or 30-inch pitches on most other carriers’ lower-tier seats. They also have what WestJet calls a “fixed recline design,” meaning they cannot be tilted back.
Von Hoensbroech noted that a 28-inch pitch is common among discount carriers, especially in Europe — where trips are generally shorter.
“The unique thing about Canada is the very long stage length, particularly during the winter peak season where many of those flights were going south to the Caribbean,” he said. Flights generally range from four and a half to six hours.
The revamped planes will see mainly 30-inch economy seats, he said.
‘Comes at a cost’
That reconfiguration carries complications.
“It comes at a cost” — and not just from reinstalling the seats themselves — von Hoensbroech said from Calgary.
“You also need to deal with the overhead part of it, because there are oxygen masks and then there’s in-seat power that you need to rewire.”
The narrower rows had put some WestJet cabins on a par with budget carriers such as Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Wizz Air, all of which sport 28-inch seats.
“At what point do we just all stand and hold onto a rubber ring handle?” asked one TikTok commenter.
However, the now-nixed configuration also carved out more space for 36 “extended comfort” seats with 34-inch pitch and 12 premium seats with 38-inch pitch, both of which yield bigger profit margins.
In December, WestJet paused a move to install the controversial seats on a big slice of its fleet amid earlier pushback, but also “to support our operations during the peak winter travel season,” said spokeswoman Julia Brunet in mid-December.
As recently as last week, the airline said it planned to continue converting to the tighter configuration come spring.
