UP FRONT
Florida-based ultra-low-cost carrier, Spirit Airlines, has ambitious
plans, not just to grow its position in the market, but also to shake
up seat comfort metrics. The first of the airline’s 100 A320neo Family
aircraft on order for delivery through 2027 (plus 50 options) has arrived,
and to mark the occasion, the airline has introduced a mild refresh of
its bold, simple and very yellow Bare Fare livery, and updated its cabins
with redesigned carpets, signage and splashes of Spirit’s brand yellow.
The main cabin seats are Acro’s Series 6LC model, for which Spirit
is launch customer. The seat is based on a composite skeleton to
minimise weight (each seat is 1.18kg (2.6 lbs) lighter than before),
with comfort enhanced through the use of thicker, ultra-lightweight
foams, lumbar support, and a 24° pre-recline. Even better, the middle
seats gain an extra 1in of width. The seat is also claimed to offer
passengers an additional 2in of usable legroom compared to industrystandard
flatback seats with the same pitch, partly due to the high
literature pocket.
This last point has resonated with Ted Christie, Spirit’s CEO, who
stated, “It is time to rethink the concept of seat pitch, a metric many
industry experts have called antiquated and misleading, given the
broad differences in seating measurements that more directly affect
comfort. Our research shows that many guests not only misunderstand
the concept of pitch, but strongly believe that comfort derives from
usable legroom. Our new seats offer more usable legroom.”
Partnering with the Chartered
Institute of Ergonomics and
Human Factors (CIHEF), Spirit
conducted comfort analysis of
the seats and also a study to
understand perceptions around
seat comfort. The brand-agnostic
study showed that, from a
sampling of more than 1,000
Additional
highlights of the cabin
redesign include new
galley carts weighing
1.8kg (4 lbs) less
than the outgoing
models
1. THE 6LC MAIN CABIN SEATS
FROM ACRO INCLUDE A FULL-SIZE
TRAY TABLE, AND ARE FINISHED
IN MATTE-BLACK WITH BORDER
STITCHING IN SPIRIT YELLOW.
THE HIGH LITERATURE POCKET
INCREASES USABLE LEGROOM
2. THE BIG FRONT SEATS HAVE
BEEN DESIGNED WITH HAECO
CABIN SOLUTIONS
3. SPIRIT AIRLINES INTRODUCED
THE BARE FARE LIVERY IN 2014.
THE SIMILARITY TO A YELLOW
CAB SCHEME CAN SURELY
BE NO COINCIDENCE
Spirit Airlines is updating its cabin designs with
ergonomically enhanced seats, which CEO Ted Christie
says should provoke a rethinking of cabin comfort metrics
Big front seats
Spirit is also updating its premium Big
Front Seats, with a new model from
HAECO Cabin Solutions. The seats
feature an ergonomically enhanced
headrest with plush memory foam,
additional memory foam in the seat
cushion for comfort and thigh support
– and of course Spirit’s signature
yellow and black stitching. Guest
feedback and survey results helped
Spirit guide these design
enhancements with the seat
manufacturer.
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Visit aircraftinteriorsinternational.com to see Spirit Airlines’ ‘Ditch the Pitch’ video
air travellers, only around 5% were able
to accurately describe seat pitch.
“Pitch is an outdated industry term
for measuring seat comfort, as it does
not consider a range of important factors
like seatback curvature, width, cushion
thickness and usable space,” said Steve
Barraclough, CEO of CIHEF. “The usable
legroom metric is the distance from the
centre of the back of the seat cushion to
the outer edges of the seat in front. We
believe this metric provides a potential
basis that all airlines could calculate
and which could offer evidence-based
information about seat comfort.”
LIGHT YELLOW
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/aircraftinteriorsinternational.com