The Empty Middle Seat: The Stuff of Dreams

There have been few pleasurable moments around a low-cost airline experience, but the vacant middle seat was one. The almost smug acknowledgement to the other person across that huge seventeen-inch gap; the placing of some papers on the spare seat or even for me the stretch across into ‘neutral’ territory were small victories. We have all admired, sometimes reluctantly the success of the low-cost airline model and especially their ability to create demand even on the dreariest of days; Ryanair’s average load factor is 98% (apparently) easyJet’s 91% and Southwest 84%. These airlines certainly knew how to cram us in, but what of the future?

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