Boeing 737 and oversized people

Mailman

Some people/nations have been getting progressively fatter over the last few decades. How can the 737 still compete when it is so narrow and ars*s are getting wider as the decades roll by.

This is a genuine question as I was on a Ryanair 737 in July and didn't enjoy getting stuck in a row of seats between two fatties who had both commandeered the armrests for the entire flight.

Afterburners on. Flame away!

Aedan

I once seen Paul O'Connell and Donnacha O'Callaghan on a ryanair flight between Cork and Dublin. It was just before the irish rugby team departed for the rugby world cup. The 2 of them took up a row of 3 seats all to themselves. Its not just the fatties that need more than thier fair share of space on a ryanair flight. And who in thier right mind is gonna try and impose themselves on them 2 guys personal space ha ha.

Hogzy

Paul O Connell alone probaby needed the 2seats, Ronan O Gara is a skinyy aul thing!

Aedan

Hogzy wrote: »

Paul O Connell alone probaby needed the 2seats, Ronan O Gara is a skinyy aul thing!

ROG was on the flight too and Stringer, neithier imposse their pressance quite as much as O'Connell or O'Callaghan as im sure you can imagine ha ha.

FlutterinBantam

Its the airlines who decide the seat pitch.

Its a fair bet the 737-800 was designed for about 160 passengers initially, how many seats the airlines pack into them is up to them.
Punters like Paul O'Connell will have difficulty fitting into any economy seat.

Foggy43

There is a minimum pitch as laid out by the relevant Aviation Authority, the IAA in Ryanairs case. The IAA should send inspectors to check the pitch while the aircraft is on a P check. I think the figure is 29 inches min.

When it comes to wide arse syndrome, remember Crash Investigations and that turbo prop. Weights were calculated using an average from the 1920's. It caused a fatal accident killing all on board. The actual weight was way over safety. Did they ever change the average weight calculation?

peter1892

A US airline were planning to charge any 'large' passengers for the extra seat, due to the amount of times that other passengers couldn't get into their seat because someone else was taking up two spaces.

The idea was to add a disclaimer at the time of booking, with a refund being applied if there were empty seats on the flight.

http://www.smartertravel.com/travel-advice/some-airlines-may-make-obese-passengers-buy-two-seats.html?id=2644439

As for safety issues - if an airline was using an 'average' weight per passenger that was hopelessly out of touch with reality that would worry me!

That said, given that many airlines now encourage people to carry on more luggage I'd wonder if many passengers carry more that the normal limit (e.g. 10 kg).

I once read a story of a flight where the take off roll and climb to cruise took longer & consumed more power & fuel than planned but the rest of the flight was normal, after landing the captain got chatting to a passenger who revealed that most of the SLF were coin collectors - so they were carrying a lot of extra weight that hadn't been accounted for in the flight plan!

Aedan

Foggy43 wrote: »

There is a minimum pitch as laid out by the relevant Aviation Authority, the IAA in Ryanairs case. The IAA should send inspectors to check the pitch while the aircraft is on a P check. I think the figure is 29 inches min.

When it comes to wide arse syndrome, remember Crash Investigations and that turbo prop. Weights were calculated using an average from the 1920's. It caused a fatal accident killing all on board. The actual weight was way over safety. Did they ever change the average weight calculation?

AFAIK at the end of that episode they said that they totally reassesed the "average" to make it up to date.

Preset No.3

Foggy43 wrote: »

The IAA should send inspectors to check the pitch while the aircraft is on a P check.

A what? Thats a new one on me.

A Check
This is performed approximately every month. This check is usually done overnight at an airport gate. The actual occurrence of this check varies by aircraft type, the cycle count (takeoff and landing is considered an aircraft "cycle"), or the number of hours flown since the last check. The occurrence can be delayed by the airline if certain predetermined conditions are met.500 Flight Hours (FH).


B Check
This is performed approximately every 3 months. This check is also usually done overnight at an airport gate. A similar occurrence schedule applies to the B check as to the A check.


C Check
This is performed approximately every 12-18 months or 2500 Flight Hours (FH). This maintenance check puts the aircraft out of service and requires plenty of space - usually at a hangar at a maintenance base. The schedule of occurrence has many factors and components as has been described, and thus varies by aircraft category and type.


D Check
This is the heaviest check for the airplane. This check occurs approximately every 4-5 years. This is the check that, more or less, takes the entire airplane apart for inspection. This requires even more space and time than all other checks, and must be performed at a maintenance base. Often, older aircraft being phased out of a particular airlines' fleet are stored or scrapped upon reaching their next check.

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK mandates that carriers provide a minimum of 26 inches of seat pitch, and most charter carriers, including Thomas Cook, First Choice, and Monarch, offer the bare minimum or just above it. Short-haul LCCs such as easyJet and Ryanair offer slightly more, their seat pitches are around 28 inches, while legacy carriers such as British Airways and Aer Lingus offer a minimum of around 30 inches.

FlutterinBantam

Foggy43 wrote: »

There is a minimum pitch as laid out by the relevant Aviation Authority, the IAA in Ryanairs case. The IAA should send inspectors to check the pitch while the aircraft is on a P check. I think the figure is 29 inches min.

When it comes to wide arse syndrome, remember Crash Investigations and that turbo prop. Weights were calculated using an average from the 1920's. It caused a fatal accident killing all on board. The actual weight was way over safety. Did they ever change the average weight calculation?

Yes they did, and do it reasonably regularly.

Last I heard it was 88kg for male and 78 for female which would have some built in tolerance for handbaggage which of course should be weighed.

*Kol*

The OP has nothing to do with seat pitch. The pitch is the distance between the seats (front to rear) not the width of the seats. No matter how far apart the seats are it still wouldn't help if the person beside you is 3 feet wide and 30 stone.

There is an Aeonautical notice issued that cover seat pitch especially in the vicinity of overwing exits. This is what the IAA check when the are issuing or renewing a C of A. The max number of seats allowed on an aircraft is specified in the Type Certificate Data Sheet for that aircraft. Airlines cannot put any more seats on the aircraft than the type cert says. Also the LOPA drawing for the aircraft shows the layout of the seats, and the pitch that should be available for each row.

powerfarmer

A situation like that does make the 737's cabin narrowness really apparent, you have to remember that the 737 cabin width has always been the same since it was first built in the 1960s and uses the same diameter fuselage sections as the 707 which dated from the 1950s (The 727 and 757 also use the same fuselage diameter)

The Airbus A320 family of aircraft (the 737s main competitor) use a slightly wider fuselage and a thinner cabin wall lining giving a little more width and a more spacious feel to the cabin.
Boeing are working on design proposals for the 737s replacement but I dont think we will be flying in one anytime soon.

derry

Lucky the 737 is mostly used for short haul so the agony if your stuck beside fatties is less time with them .

The Irish have gone from being fairly fat free in the 1970s era compared to the Yanks to now being on average fatter than many yanks.Young Kids even are much bigger than me.They say that 50% of the Irish kids are classed as Obese.I can say that looks tome to closer to 75% when your in a 737.

The real murder will be if they actually try to use the 737 for crossing the pond .I think the idea goes like the plane leavesROI and fly's to greenland over flying Iceland.This is something to do with twin engine planes are only allowed so many hours flying over the ocean in case one engine quits .This allows the plane to divert to Iceland if there is a problem .From Greenland then it down the coast to New York ,but trip takes some 10 hours plus maybe even 14 hours cant rememeber the facts.All this is due to the smaller slower 737 and the need to refuel and the longer route to get there .

They should manditory weight and size those passengers before those flights if they actually do the pond or fights and air rage will become the theme near to Greenland .


One 737 leaving Spain I was on didn't think it would unstick as it seemed to be very heavy and seemed to have used the whole runway to get off .At Dublin airport saw that bucket loads of cargo and crap and bucket loads of sports goods stuff came of mostly golf sticks. So much stuff came of the plane that 25% of the passengers like me had to wait for our stuff to come on another flight as there wasn't room on our flight for it to come on that flight. I suspected there was something up when looking the window in Spain I saw my luggage beside the plane no sign to be loaded and then the loading truck with my luggage and a bucket load of other luggage took off away from the plane. A minute later the plane left so I wasn't suprised my luggage never made it.What I noticed is my luggage was surronded by loads of golf clubs .
I suspect that my flight was 100% golfers with heavy golf bags to boot . Moral of the story if you want to travel on a mega heavy plane forget coins try a plane full of golfers and the golf bags were probably stuffed stupid with heavy weight booze to boot .

The 737 is my least favorite plane for space and size but when the price is right what you can do. The most of the airbus even smaller ones is much better .For turbulance the Boeing seem seems less effected than the Airbus.



Derry

JSK 252

737s are often used on " domestic flights " in the USA from places like new york to san francisco and flying from coast to coast is nearly the same distance as going from Ireland To the East coast of USA!

MDTyKe

For the most part it can be longer. I do NY-DUB in 5h40 whereas NY to SF is 6h30. But its around 7hrs going from DUB-NY ,which obviously is longer.


Matt

*Kol*

A lot of the longer domestic routes in the US are served using B757, B767 type aircraft not B737.

Fabio

Jetblue's aircraft are all of the 737 size...maybe the Airbus equivalent of the 737 but in and around the same size range.

Then again they do have leather seats and stuff...

JSK 252

*Kol* wrote: »

A lot of the longer domestic routes in the US are served using B757, B767 type aircraft not B737.

I said often, not to be mistaken with " all flights ". Continental use the 737-700 on coast to coast routes.

*Kol*

JSK 252 wrote: »

I said often, not to be mistaken with " all flights ". Continental use the 737-700 on coast to coast routes.

I said a lot, also not to be mistaken with "all flights".:p

JSK 252

*Kol* wrote: »

I said a lot, also not to be mistaken with "all flights".:p

Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, we have a joker on board!:pac:

pclancy

Yeah its all down to the config. I was on a China Southern 737-800 from Beiing to Urumqi last year and with its nice seating pitch, fold down flatscreen TVs and fresh interior it felt a far cry from Ryanairs 737s.

On a side note, China was the only country i've ever been too where people try constantly to smoke in the plane's toilets. Crazy. They actually think they can get away with it!

Tigger

i was on a ryanair 737 on stephnes day and the two
"girls " in front of me s at in the three seat row
there was no way that another p[erson could have fitted

what if the plane had been full?

Preset No.3

Fabio wrote: »

Jetblue's aircraft are all of the 737 size...maybe the Airbus equivalent of the 737 but in and around the same size range.

Then again they do have leather seats and stuff...

That would be the common fleet A320. All leather seats, live tv and a pleasure of an airline to fly with.