Will the pandemic make first class a thing of the past?

With the largest planes grounded and the richest passengers switching to private, the decline of first class is accelerating According to figures from aviation consultancy OAG, there were a total of 8.46m seats in first-class cabins on scheduled flights in 2019 (excluding US and Chinese domestic flights, where the term first applies to what would be called business elsewhere). That was a 45 per cent drop since 2010 while, over the same period, the number of business-class seats grew 42 per cent to 184.48m. Carriers such as Air New Zealand, KLM and Turkish Airlines had ditched first well before the pandemic, but the disruption of the past year has further reduced the number of first-class seats in the air. Currently first is unavailable on airlines including Qatar Airways, Singapore Airlines and Qantas. Ever since BA introduced lie-flat seats in business class in 2000, first has increasingly come to seem like an expensive gimmick, often costing twice as much for what in effect amounts to better champagne and more caviar. Covid-induced hygiene changes, such as using disposable packaging instead of Wedgwood ceramics and crystal, are likely to further reduce the veneer of luxury, even if some passengers are likely to want the extra privacy. At the same time, airlines have been moving away from larger planes, the 747s and A380s, that house the really flash offerings. Etihad is just one of the airlines indefinitely parking its A380 fleet — in effect meaning the end of its much-hyped Residences, three-room suites with butler service that cost upwards of $30,000 for a round trip. Story has more.<br/>