As we all know, nowadays airlines do everything they can to squeeze as many seats as possible onto planes, especially when we're talking about short haul configured aircraft of European airlines. They've been able to make these planes more "efficient" by reducing legroom, making the seats thinner, and eliminating as much galley and bathroom space…
Continue reading: Lufthansa Blocks A320neo Seats Over Center Of Gravity Issues
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Maybe they should ask Boeing for an easy, cheap software fix not relying on redundant sensors...
😉
Remove the seats and install a self-service drinks bar? Marketing advantage and we know it won't be used by standing passengers anywhere near the ground....
Other airlines are not affected?
The 186 seat is popular among low-cost carriers. Do they also block them off too?
If BA are having a similar issue, all they'll have to do is reintroduce the centre seat console tray in Club Europe to redress the balance..or imbalance. 🙂
Karma indeed for squeezing in an extra row of seats which they now can't use! Ha!
Thats also the raison why their neo's don't have wifi installed, the weight of the antenna moves the centre of gravity to much aft.
Swiss had the same "issue" in 2018 on their 'old' A320Ceo and the incident almost happened in Geneva. Swiss also left the last row unoccupied. This was reported in April 2018.
So this is strictly not an issue just with LH A320neos with the Space Flex Cabins!!!
The Link is in German.
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/airbus-a320-von-swiss-haben-gleichgewichtsprobleme
Years ago, flying IL62's from LHR to WAW, passengers were requested to sit in the forward part of the cabin for taxiing and take off. There was a stampede of smokers to the back as soon as the seat belt light went off. Stability issues? I think so, otherwise why the rear wheel strut.
"It’s expected that a software fix will be available sometime next year that fixes this."
So let's hear it from all those who are anti-software "fixes" on this Airbus NEO vs. Boeing MAX ...
Never had these issues when planes were designed in months using drafting tables and slide rules.
Imagine! Greed at airlines and aircraft manufacturers creating safety problems. Huh.
CofG issues are nothing new. Have flown on aircraft going back over 50 years where seat rows have been blocked due to light loads and weight and balance calculations have determined certain seats could not be occupied. The difference today is if you cram in an extra row of seats beyond the original design expectations and fill them with pax at or over the average weight used for calculations plus the weight of carry ons, you may well cause problems in certain circumstances and that is what the EASA is trying to avoid. Unlike the problems with the 737MAX this is not a generic design fault but a customer specified modification having the potential to cause the aircraft to exceed it's designed operating parameters in a given set of circumstances.
@Phil Blinkhorn -- "Unlike the problems with the 737MAX this is not a generic design fault but a customer specified modification having the potential to cause the aircraft to exceed it’s designed operating parameters in a given set of circumstances."
But, as @Sam posted before you -- "Swiss had the same 'issue' in 2018 on their ‘old’ A320Ceo and the incident almost happened in Geneva. Swiss also left the last row unoccupied. This was reported in April 2018.
So this is strictly not an issue just with LH A320neos with the Space Flex Cabins!!!"
@Phil Blinkhorn -- are you, therefore, implying that Swiss Air also violated original "design specs" with their seating layouts, despite *not* being Space Flex and on a legacy A320ceo?
Delta has had a weight problem on some narrow body planes, after adding extra seats, they risk the plane tipping backwards when the plane is unloading (when the front passengers get off but the rear passengers are still on). Their solution is to have the ground crew scramble to install a support pole from the rear of the aircraft to the ground immediately after the plane parks at a gate, to prevent the plane from tipping backwards.
Well, it's only an issue for Ultra-Low-Cost carriers such as LH, which put 189 seats into the plane. I hope they will not be able to use it for long time ... that helps them to learn the lesson well.
Interesting they don’t choose to move cargo in the belly instead, leave the last cargo space empty, or add ballast to the front.
Maybe they could seat passengers in decreasing weight-order, starting with the heaviest in the front!
On a recent AS 737-900ER flight from ORD to ANC the passengers seated in the rear were told to move forward because of a weight imbalance. I happened to be in seat 6A so couldn't see how many people that involved. Like @Alex, I wondered why they hadn't loaded all the luggage and cargo in the forward compartment, since they must have known the flight wasn't full.
Do aircraft designers use differing average weights for premium cabin passengers and economy passengers (the latter likely being heavier than the former)?
@cargocult -- "Do aircraft designers use differing average weights for premium cabin passengers and economy passengers (the latter likely being heavier than the former)?"
Perhaps aircraft designers can only design to generic ranges of parameters regarding weight distributions, since the passenger cabins are customized post-manufacturing by airlines and not by the aircraft manufacturers?
BA are doi g this also I flew on their NEO last week and they had blocked off the last row
Ryanair (!! I never fly them after their mass cancellations a few years ago) used to block off rows 3-5 on their B737s, if the flight was not full. If in Row 2 that was rather lovely.
I understood (but may well have been wrong) that that was because they put all bags in the forward cargo hold for which ground handling charge less than using both holds?