Seat configuration
Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2023 2:28 am
This is something I have been thinking about for some time, the basic change in this is that airline seats are not free. They cost money and take time to change on an aircraft.
Aircraft would fall into three categories, Standard, Convertible and Foldable.
Standard seat aircraft are just normal aircraft.
Convertible seat aircraft are aircraft where seats can be quickly added or removed, but each seat installed reduces the cargo capacity of the aircraft.
Foldable seat aircraft are aircraft with seats that fold up and remain on the aircraft.
The basic cost of seats are:
Economy:
Cost: 10,000 v$
Weight: 20kg/44 lbs
Business:
Cost: 30,000 v$,
Weight: 40kg/88 lbs
First Class:
Cost 90,000 v$
Weight: 80kg/172 lbs
When a new aircraft is purchased the base price will not include the seats, you will be able to select the seats at purchase time.
The DOW of the aircraft listed in the database will assume all seats are installed, if fewer seats are installed the system will calculate an new effective DOW, so if the A320 Neo with a listed DOW of 44300 with 220 passengers, if only 200 economy seats are installed the effective DOW for the aircraft will be 43900 kg (44300 kg - 20 fewer seats * 20 kg for economy seats ). That same A320 with no seats installed would have a DOW of 39900 kg.
If you want to change the seat configuration, you will specify how many of each type you want to add or remove. For seats removed you can either store them in a warehouse if you have one at that airport or sell them back to the system for 50% the purchase price. For seats being added, if you have some seats stored in a local warehouse you can pull them out else you can purchase them from the system. If you are exchanging seats from your warehouse there will be a small labor charge for the workers (say 100$ per seat changed).
The time involved will be somewhere between one hour and one day depending on the number of seats, have not worked out a formula yet.
The value of the aircraft will be adjusted by the value of the seats, based on the price you can sell them back to the system.
For convertible seat aircraft it is basically the same as above except
- The cost to add/remove a seat is only 10$ per seat instead of 100$ but they will still have to be stored in a warehouse.
- There is no time delay in changing seats (instant).
- The seats in convertible aircraft are not compatible with seats from standard aircraft and cost 10% more.
Foldable seat aircraft are aircraft with seats that fold up and remain on the aircraft, typically they will be pre defined as a predefined single class level (first/business/economy). You don't have to worry about seat configuration here, it is assumed that if there are fewer passengers than seats the others are folded away. Most piston and turboprops with fewer than 8 passengers will fall into this category.
I had also considered to include new seat types, premium or basic economy, ultra premium first class ect, but the problem I would have is that currently the system keeps track of a separate pool of passengers for each of the three classes, and how to figure out how many passengers would be willing to fly with each seat type when there are lots of them, including scenarios where a passenger would prefer one type but would be willing to do something else close was a bit too much.
It occurred to me in writing this that right now only airlines using advanced finance can build warehouses, which would prevent gold accounts from being able to swap seats in and out on convertible aircraft, so as part of this proposal we will allow any airline to build an office or small warehouse, but maintenance centers will still be restricted.
Aircraft would fall into three categories, Standard, Convertible and Foldable.
Standard seat aircraft are just normal aircraft.
Convertible seat aircraft are aircraft where seats can be quickly added or removed, but each seat installed reduces the cargo capacity of the aircraft.
Foldable seat aircraft are aircraft with seats that fold up and remain on the aircraft.
The basic cost of seats are:
Economy:
Cost: 10,000 v$
Weight: 20kg/44 lbs
Business:
Cost: 30,000 v$,
Weight: 40kg/88 lbs
First Class:
Cost 90,000 v$
Weight: 80kg/172 lbs
When a new aircraft is purchased the base price will not include the seats, you will be able to select the seats at purchase time.
The DOW of the aircraft listed in the database will assume all seats are installed, if fewer seats are installed the system will calculate an new effective DOW, so if the A320 Neo with a listed DOW of 44300 with 220 passengers, if only 200 economy seats are installed the effective DOW for the aircraft will be 43900 kg (44300 kg - 20 fewer seats * 20 kg for economy seats ). That same A320 with no seats installed would have a DOW of 39900 kg.
If you want to change the seat configuration, you will specify how many of each type you want to add or remove. For seats removed you can either store them in a warehouse if you have one at that airport or sell them back to the system for 50% the purchase price. For seats being added, if you have some seats stored in a local warehouse you can pull them out else you can purchase them from the system. If you are exchanging seats from your warehouse there will be a small labor charge for the workers (say 100$ per seat changed).
The time involved will be somewhere between one hour and one day depending on the number of seats, have not worked out a formula yet.
The value of the aircraft will be adjusted by the value of the seats, based on the price you can sell them back to the system.
For convertible seat aircraft it is basically the same as above except
- The cost to add/remove a seat is only 10$ per seat instead of 100$ but they will still have to be stored in a warehouse.
- There is no time delay in changing seats (instant).
- The seats in convertible aircraft are not compatible with seats from standard aircraft and cost 10% more.
Foldable seat aircraft are aircraft with seats that fold up and remain on the aircraft, typically they will be pre defined as a predefined single class level (first/business/economy). You don't have to worry about seat configuration here, it is assumed that if there are fewer passengers than seats the others are folded away. Most piston and turboprops with fewer than 8 passengers will fall into this category.
I had also considered to include new seat types, premium or basic economy, ultra premium first class ect, but the problem I would have is that currently the system keeps track of a separate pool of passengers for each of the three classes, and how to figure out how many passengers would be willing to fly with each seat type when there are lots of them, including scenarios where a passenger would prefer one type but would be willing to do something else close was a bit too much.
It occurred to me in writing this that right now only airlines using advanced finance can build warehouses, which would prevent gold accounts from being able to swap seats in and out on convertible aircraft, so as part of this proposal we will allow any airline to build an office or small warehouse, but maintenance centers will still be restricted.