CryptoPlankton wrote:Lootman wrote:zico wrote:If a first class seat on a plane takes the same space as 6 economy seats, then the first class passenger is consuming at least 6 times the resources to get from A to B that each individual economy passenger uses. (Actually it's even more because first class passengers also have extra cabin crew to serve them).
Fortunately I've discovered a carbon-neutral form of air travel as I only travel on airplanes with a spare seat for me, so the plane would be making its journey anyway!
That is a strange way of looking at it. I look at it from the point of view of the plane rather than the passenger. Try this instead. Which would burn more fuel - a plane with 50 First class passengers or the same plane with 300 Economy passengers?
Now that truly is a strange way of looking at it! I look at it from the point of view of considering overall energy efficiency rather than that of an inanimate object. Try this instead. Assume those 300 economy passengers chose to fly first class because someone bizarrely told them it's more efficient. Which would burn more fuel - one plane with 300 economy passengers or six similar planes each with just 50 first class passengers?
Perhaps at least we can all agree that there are different ways of looking at this?
Your example isn't realistic since those 300 Economy flyers would probably never pay for First fares. They'd end up going somewhere much closer or perhaps not going anywhere at all. And that would certainly save fuel.
Aggregate demand for different fare structures and cabin classes drives airline decisions about how to configure their planes. More demand for F and J seats leads to more premium-heavy plane configurations and, by my reasoning above, a plane with fewer passengers paying higher fares will burn less fuel.
You might be correct on a fuel-per-person basis, but that assumes there will always be a constant number of flyers, whereas I'd argue that demand for flying is at least partly elastic and price-sensitive.
In the end if there is a spare seat in First and a spare seat in Economy, then it's not going to make much difference which I choose. Either way, the plane weighs more by the amount of my weight and bags, and the seat I didn't buy will be empty. Much of the take-off weight of a plane is the plane itself - an A380 weighs about 400 tons before fuel and passengers. My body weight plus carry-on bag is about 1/10th of a ton.
