JetBlue starts shrinking legroom and upgrading interiors on its older aircraft

JetBlue is modernising interiors on its older Airbus airplanes, adding new seats with adjustable headrests, in-seat power, better televisions and LED lighting. Many of its aircraft have barely been updated in a decade or more. When all 130 Airbus A320s get the new product — the first plane is in the shop now — JetBlue will have shrunk passenger legroom too. Customers should have about 32 inches of pitch, a decrease from 34 inches, though JetBlue says that, fleetwide, it will retain the most average legroom among US airlines. The modernized interiors will roughly match what’s already flying on the airline’s newer and larger Airbus A321s. JetBlue’s updated all-coach A320s will have 162 seats, up from 150. That is still not so shabby, considering Frontier Airlines fits 180 coach seats in the same plane. The retrofit plan is considerably behind schedule, a result of issues with the planes’ toilets and in-flight entertainment system. JetBlue first delighted Wall Street in 2014 with its densification plans, promising to add 15 seats to the A320s — both to modernize the planes, and increase revenue per seat. The airline amended it plan in early 2016, after it calculated 15 extra seats would cause too much of a space crunch for its crews. When it changed plans in January 2016, JetBlue called for retrofits to begin in early 2017, with completion by 2019. It’s not likely to hit that completion date anymore.<br/>