In a previous post, I compared short haul business class in Europe vs. the United States. Within Europe, you’ll typically find that short haul business class simply consists of economy seats with a blocked adjacent seat, plus priority services and improved inflight service.

Often when people fly business class within Europe for the first time, they’re shocked to find that there are no special business class seats. In this post, I thought it would be interesting to discuss the “why” of intra-Europe business class. Why is Europe the most disappointing region when it comes to business class hard product on shot haul flights? Let’s discuss that…

Why intra-Europe business class is the way it is

Why does business class on intra-Europe flights typically consist of economy seats with blocked adjacent seats, rather than a dedicated cabin with more spacious seats? It’s an interesting question, and I’ll share my take. I’d say most of the reasons are fairly obvious, but there’s a bit of nuance.

Competitive dynamics allow for this product

The most basic reason that European airlines have the intra-Europe business class seats that they have is “because they can.” European skies are controlled by the “big three” European airline groups — Air France-KLM, IAG, and Lufthansa Group — and those airlines all use the same “economy seats with blocked middles” model.

So while the airlines aren’t colluding, I think they all know it’s in their best interest to keep things the way they are. The competitive dynamics are the same reason that US airlines don’t typically offer lounge access on domestic flights, and don’t have meal services on flights of under two or so hours.

There’s not competitive pressure to change

These cabins offer incredible flexibility

As is true around the world, premium demand isn’t equal between markets. A Monday morning London to Zurich flight is going to have much different business class demand than a Saturday night Vienna to Tirana flight.

The single greatest upside for airlines with simply designating certain seats as being business class is that they can adjust premium capacity with every single flight, simply by moving a cabin divider. The upside there is huge.

Obviously Europe isn’t alone in having varying premium cabin demand between flights. The difference is that US airlines generally offer unlimited complimentary upgrades to elite members, while that’s not really a thing in Europe.

In the United States, airlines earn a huge percentage of their profits from loyalty programs, so in ways, they don’t mind if there are some empty premium seats, since they can deliver on those benefits that keep people loyal. Keep in mind that European carriers can’t fully copy this success, since interchange fees are much lower in Europe.

If one of the major European carriers were to innovate and start introducing a real business class product within Europe, they’d likely be putting themselves at a significant disadvantage. Sure, maybe they could command a small revenue premium for the business class seats that they can sell (though so many intra-Europe business class seats are sold as part of long haul itineraries), but there would be all kinds of situations were capacity and demand are completely mismatched.

The flexible cabin size is also great in terms of being able to maximize revenue with selling upgrades. European airlines increasingly sell reasonably priced upgrades for cash leading up to departure. There’s huge upside when economy isn’t full, where simply seating someone on “the other side of the curtain” is basically pure profit. Meanwhile on a flight with very high economy demand and good yields, the airline can easily make the business class cabin smaller.

Not having dedicated seats offers flexibility

The average stage length of flights is short

Another major consideration is that geographically, the most traveled air corridors in Europe are much shorter than in the United States. So in Europe, a large percentage of flights are somewhere around an hour, much more so than in the United States.

The truth is that the extra space isn’t really needed as much on flights of this length, compared to flights in the United States. Admittedly there are some exceptions in both regions, but broadly speaking, that’s true.

Many flights within Europe are very short

European airlines with proper business class seats

It’s interesting to note that some European airlines do actually have “proper” seats in business class on short haul flights, rather than just repurposing economy seats. Generally speaking, these are airlines in Eastern Europe, often close to Asia, and this probably reflects the different expectations that consumers have in these regions.

With that in mind, several airlines come to mind:

  • Turkish Airlines has proper business class seats on most of its regional aircraft, though also has some planes with economy seats that have blocked middle seats
  • Icelandair has real business class seats, but that also reflects that the airline flies to both the United States and all over Europe with these types of planes
  • Russian airlines mostly have proper business class, including Aeroflot, S7 Airlines, and others
  • Bulgaria Air A220s and Georgian Airways 737s have a proper business class cabin
  • It’s also worth acknowledging that some European airlines rotate jets with long haul business class seats on short haul flights within Europe (like Aer Lingus A321LRs and A321XLRs, TAP Air Portugal A321LRs, etc.,), but that’s different from a purpose-built premium product

Turkish Airlines has proper regional business class

Bottom line

European airlines aren’t exactly known for their spacious intra-Europe business class products, which typically just consist of economy seats at the front of the cabin with blocked adjacent seats. People often wonder how European airlines “get away” with this.

On the most basic level, it’s because they can — when it’s just the standard in the region, there’s not much of an incentive to innovate. For that matter, there’s huge upside for airlines with this, in terms of the flexibility it offers them to adjust capacity between flights. Given the short lengths of most flights within Europe, I suspect they don’t feel the need to change a whole lot.

What’s your take on the business class hard product on flights in Europe?