Airbus widens A350 cabin in mile-high real estate war

Airbus quietly dropped a slogan that had it in a contentious elbow-space dispute with its archrival a decade ago when it unveiled a wider and longer cabin for its A350 in the race for wide-body aircraft sales with Boeing.

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The two aircraft manufacturers frequently argue over fuel efficiency. The most recent attack targets some of the world’s most valuable real estate: the large jet’s cabin, where luxury meets expense.

To make the A350s lighter and more flexible, Airbus announced in a blog that it was introducing a New Production Standard (NPS). The cabin will be lengthened by moving a bulkhead, constricting the cockpit, and removing four inches from interior walls.

The Airbus upgrade, which is crucial for the resurgent wide-body jet market competition, allows up to 34 more seats to reach more than 400 on an A350-1000 compared to the 406-seat Boeing 777X. Additional seats have two effects on airlines: they can increase revenue if they are filled, and they lower the cost per seat, which can lower prices and influence the type of aircraft that an airline chooses to purchase.

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Nine 18-inch wide seats are currently found in each row in the majority of A350 economy cabins. This will be increased to 18.7 inches by the A350 NPS.Seats are 17 inches wide on airlines that opt to add an extra seat to make a row 10 abreast. According to industry sources, this makes it simpler to sell the A350 to major carriers who are discontinuing the 16.4-inch seats available in the 10-row A350’s current model.

Airbus was promoting 18-inch seats while the 787 had nine instead of eight seats in a row, which was hurting sales of the A350. In order to compete with Boeing for seats, Airbus struggled with its large aircraft.

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