It’s a move that has created quite a media firestorm: Canadian airline WestJet announced it will begin converting some of its aircraft to a layout including a new, no-recline economy section and new first-class seating. The airline says this will help it offer cheaper fares for some passengers. The trade-off, however, comes at the expense of passengers’ recline … unless they’re willing to spend more.
While not the first low-cost carrier to pioneer cheaper, unbundled fares, the airline has been busy finding new ways to court budget-conscious passengers. No-recline seats are the latest example.
The airline claims it is simply trying to help passengers save a buck by offering newer, lower-cost fares.
One of WestJet’s defining experiences has historically been its all-economy-class cabins, where the seat pitch — that is, the space between a fixed point on your seat and the same point on the seat in front of you — is a mere 30 inches (although it varies by aircraft and configuration).
The airline announced earlier this year that it would begin upgrading part of its fleet with a new interior configuration. Once retrofitted, WestJet’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 and 737-800 aircraft will be equipped with a new first-class cabin — dubbed “Premium” — in addition to the more familiar economy cabin. In WestJet’s case, this economy cabin will offer two different seat configurations.
‘Premium’ cabin
The first-class seats are at the front of the plane and offer not just the most spacious option and recline but also come equipped with power outlets, tablet holders and a tray for snacks and drinks — just like most premium cabins on other airlines. The seats will resemble the same seat make and model as currently featured on WestJet’s Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners, giving the rest of the fleet a more consistent look and feel.
Standard seating
Standard seating will offer passengers the usual 30-inch seat pitch, but starting with this new interior redesign, the seats will have no additional recline; they will be in a fixed, upright position. The airline claims that in user testing, some passengers said they favored a fixed-recline seat option to avoid other passengers invading their personal space.
“Through our guest user testing, half indicated they preferred a fixed recline, to avoid feeling impacted by other passengers encroaching upon their space,” Jennifer Booth, a spokesperson for WestJet, told Nexstar in a published statement.
The airline believes it will reduce inflight incidents or fights over reclining, as flyers can never seem to settle on proper reclining etiquette. Of course, cynics would say it’s just another way for the airline to make money.
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Standard seating is found toward the back of the aircraft, and seats become slightly less spacious the farther back you are. Exit-row seats are part of the standard seating option but offer more legroom.
Extended Comfort
“Extended Comfort” seats, while still part of the economy cabin, offer a seat pitch of between 34 and 36 inches, which allows passengers to better stretch their legs in their space. The recline on these seats is also rather generous, with 2 to 4 inches of recline. The Extended Comfort seats will be at the front of the economy cabin, just behind the premium cabin. So, in addition to more space, passengers will board earlier while there’s still overhead bin space and disembark ahead of the rest of the economy cabin.
Rollout of new interiors
The first plane with the new cabin configuration is expected to enter service later in October. The airline hopes to have all 43 reconfigured by early 2026. WestJet, a Canadian airline, operates most of its flights within Canada but serves many destinations in the U.S. and Mexico, as well as a few locations in Central America and the Caribbean.
In order to recognize which aircraft configuration will be present on your flight at the time of booking, WestJet will designate its flights with older, all-economy configurations as “economy seating only.” If you have already purchased your flight and would like to know what configuration you’ll see once you board, you can check the airline’s flight guide within 72 hours of departure, read the check-in email 24 hours prior to departure, or find out during the check-in process.
Reaction
As you can imagine, passenger reactions have been decidedly mixed, with some saying no passengers should be reclining anyway and others saying they don’t want to pay for what was once free.
Whether there’s extended pushback remains to be seen. But one prominent airline analyst told TPG that he believed the idea wouldn’t work.
“Christmas won’t arrive for another two and a half months, but WestJet just gave Air Canada an early holiday gift,” said Henry Harteveldt, industry analyst and president of Atmosphere Research Group. “Of all the dumb ideas I have seen airlines do in my career, this is one of the, if not the, dumbest. I strongly believe WestJet’s decision will backfire quickly and badly. I urge the airline to abandon this foolhardy idea and look for ideas that will actually attract, rather than repel, passengers.”
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