At time when it seems every inch of cabin space is precious, Spirit Airlines in the US is introducing a new wider seat. The ultra low-fare airline unveiled its latest state-of-the-art Vector Light seat at the recent Apex Expo 2022 event in Long Beach, Ca.
Designed to be wider and offer extra cushion and other comfortable features to enhance the guest experience, the redesigned interior will be installed on Spirit’s new aircraft deliveries starting in late January 2023. In total, 33 new A320 Family aircraft are planned for delivery throughout 2023.
Among the features:
More Room: Each seat will gain a half-inch of width. The new seat technology unlocks previously unused space with a design that fits closer to the wall of the aircraft, creating an opportunity to increase seat width. This innovation also supports the optimization of cabin operations by adding the extra room without removing space from the aisle to ensure fast boarding and deplaning for Guests. Spirit’s middle seats will continue to be an inch wider than aisle and window seats.
Spirit also continues to champion innovative curved seatback designs that unlock space at the knee level. This additional space amounts to about two more inches of knee space compared to flatback seats on legacy airlines with the same pitch. These extra pockets of space are omitted in the standard industry “pitch” metric, which is focused on flatback seats. So, Guests have more personal space than what the “pitch” measurement indicates.
More Comfort: All seats will now have more cushion and newly added headrests. Big Front Seats are seeing changes in design to include more cushion, nearly an inch more pre-recline, easier to reach tray tables and a wider seatback.
More Fuel-Efficient: The new seats come with an incremental environmental benefit as well. Even with the new features, the weight of each new Vector Light seat will amount to a decrease of nearly 11 ounces per seat thanks to advances in seat frame technology. These small changes have outsized effects in a large-scale operation, resulting in sizable reductions of fuel burn across the fleet.
“Our cabin refresh in 2019 was a significant enhancement in the guest experience, and these new seats are another great step forward in increasing value for our guests,” says Spirit VP Lania Rittenhouse.
Spirit has 33 new planes projected for delivery in 2023.