Airline Customers Are Willing To Pay More For Flights With Blocked Middle Seats
New research has revealed that during the COVID-19 pandemic, customers are willing to pay nearly 17% more to fly on a plane with middle seats blocked off — a strategy that some airlines are continuing to promote, while others have gone back to full capacity flights.
In a July survey conducted by Atmosphere Research, a travel industry analytics company, 2,500 participants in the United States were asked how much more they’d be willing to pay for a flight that would block access to its middle seats versus an otherwise identical flight that would not.
The price for the flight with full seating was set at $200 and respondents were given a slider that went from 0% to 35%, and asked how much more they would be willing to pay for the flight with blocked middle seats.
“The average was 16.5%,” Henry H. Harteveldt, the president of Atmosphere Research, told HuffPost.
The survey also revealed that while 75% were concerned with contracting COVID-19 in general, more than 80% said they were specifically afraid of catching the virus on a plane.
Related...
Delta Confirms 2 Passengers Were Removed From Flight For Refusing To Wear Masks
MasterChef's Reynold And Girlfriend's VLOGs Will Make You Want To Travel Even More
When asked about other safety precautions, 84% and 85% said, respectively, that mandatory face mask rules and the constant cleaning of planes were important. More than 80% said that it was “somewhat or extremely important” to have the middle seat open in coach.
Only a handful of US airlines are continuing the social distancing practice of blocking the booking of middle seats on domestic flights and flying planes at less than full capacity, including Delta Air Lines, JetBlue Airways and Southwest Airlines. Southwest does not assign seats, but offers a...
