Sun Country to drop first class in seat reconfiguration

Sun Country Airlines will drop first class from its Boeing 737 cabins, as it proceeds with an earlier-announced seat densification under a new low-cost strategy. The airline had previously said it plans to halve its 12-seat first class cabin to six seats, but now says it will eliminate the cabin altogether. A Sun Country spokesperson says that only about 44% of the airline's first class seats are purchased at that fare level, and 30% of first class seats are taken by passengers who do not generate revenue. "This tells us that our product does not align with our customer," says the spokesperson. The airline will add seats to its 737-800 fleet to bring the total seat count on board to 183, up from 168 currently. It currently operates 16 737-800s and four 737-700s, but the airline says the four 737-700s which have 126 seats on board will not be reconfigured. The first newly configured aircraft will go into service from 1 November, and Sun Country aims to complete the modification on the fleet by end-January 2019.<br/>