Imagine you're in a service business whose core experience is viewed by consumers as "awful." If you're in the airline business, you don't have to imagine, because this is the general consensus about airline coach seating.
According to the latest version of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), U.S. consumers are a little happier about airline service this year than last, but they still rank it below the benchmark year of 1994, so in terms of the long game, things aren't much improved. And that's the good news.
The bad news is that consumers rank the airline industry lower than all other industries measured by the national survey except for subscription TV and Internet service. Worse, they reserve their harshest criticism for what the survey report rightly called "the principal part of the experience -- the flight itself."
Although consumers gave marks of 80 or above for features such as on-time arrival, making reservations online or checking in, they gave airlines a score of 68 for quality of in-flight services such as food, movies and music and a 63 for "seat comfort," which the ASCI authors characterized as "awful."
There are, of course, some notable exceptions. JetBlue and Virgin America, for example, are often praised for their coach seating, and JetBlue and Southwest scored well overall in the ASCI survey. But in broad terms, the report said improving the passenger's experience in the main cabin is "the biggest challenge confronting airlines," and we agree.
A clean, well-lighted lounge and an efficient check-in process are important and improving parts of the airline product, and sleeper seats and personal pods are welcome additions for long-haul premium passengers, but when you come down to it, the experience of plain vanilla economy class isn't any more desirable now than it was 50 years ago and in some ways is worse.
True, we have more and better forms of electronic entertainment, and newer aircraft offer more cheerful interiors. Boeing, for example, touts the Dreamliner as being quieter and more comfortably pressurized and humidified. But the industry standard remains the single-aisle aircraft with six-abreast seating and an ever-shrinking amount of legroom dictated by economics.
It is worth noting that the 737, with a cabin width of 11 feet and 7 inches, was designed in the mid-1960s, when the average American male weighed 166 pounds and women averaged 140. According to the government's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, American men are at 195 and rising, and women are at 166.
At the Paris Air Show last week, Boeing and Airbus were busy talking up their new models, and while passenger comfort was part of the conversation, it was clear that the driving force behind airliner design these days is tweaking engines, wings and other components for maximum fuel efficiency, not redesigning the interior space.
The next version of the venerable 737, the 737 Max, is due to arrive in 2017 and promises double-digit improvements in fuel economy compared with current models.
This is all well and good. But the cabin is the same, and the competing A320 family from Airbus is barely 7 inches wider.
What Boeing, Airbus and the airlines need to do is design a narrowbody aircraft that can operate efficiently while providing more space per passenger in the standard coach configuration at a price point that will make money for the airline.
That would be awesome.