United targets big spenders with first class in small cities

It’s not often that an airline decides to design its own airplane. Sunday, United Airlines will fly customers on a new regional jet crafted to its exact specifications, an aircraft that comes with 10 first class seats. By putting premium perches on a small regional jet with a total of only 50 seats, United hopes to close an amenities gap for a highly competitive group of travellers from smaller cities to its Chicago and Newark, New Jersey hubs. From the outside, the jet looks like every other Bombardier CRJ-700, a 70-seat workhorse flown widely across the regional airline industry. Inside, however, the plane is a brand new type, called a CRJ-550, from which United has removed 20 seats—a counter-intuitive move in an era when airlines are eagerly stuffing more seats on their airplanes to help reduce costs and goose profits. <br/>