Maybe I’m the only one who finds this interesting, but I did a little number crunching just now on something I’ve been curious about, and figured I’d share the results.
In this post:
The varying size of airline first class footprints
International first class is the pinnacle of commercial aviation. Some airline executives argue it’s a dying product, while others argue that it’s as hot as ever, and worth investing in.
Just to be perfectly clear, let me emphasize that I’m talking about international, three cabin (or even four cabin, if there’s premium economy) first class, and I’m not talking about domestic first class within the United States, which is often marketed as such (that creates lots of confusion among those from other countries).
Currently there are a total of 24 airlines around the globe offering international first class products. So while I’ve frequently ranked the world’s top first class airlines and top first class lounges, which airlines actually have the biggest first class footprints? In other words, how many first class seats are installed on the aircraft of airlines with first class?
I’ve done some number crunching, essentially figuring out how many planes at an airline have first class, and how many total first class seats there are in the fleet. While I feel good about my math, let me emphasize that some people might quibble with me slightly on some of these points. For example:
- To what extent should parked planes factor into the math? Some planes are parked long term, some are undergoing temporary maintenance, etc.
- What exactly is the capacity of first class on some airlines? Is the capacity for Lufthansa Allegris A350 first class three or four, for example, and what about Korean Air’s planes with first class seats, but where first class is no longer consistently being sold?
So with acknowledgement that people might disagree with me slightly, here’s the math on how many physical first class seats you’ll find on the airlines that offer this product (sorted by the number of first class seats):
- Emirates has 201 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 2,214 seats
- British Airways has 76 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 680 seats
- Korean Air has 35 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 294 seats
- Lufthansa has 41 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 283 seats
- SWISS has 30 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 240 seats
- Air China has 25 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 220 seats
- Singapore Airlines has 34 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 160 seats
- American Airlines has 20 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 160 seats
- Japan Airlines has 20 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 140 seats
- Qantas has 10 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 140 seats
- All Nippon Airways has 16 planes with first class seats, with a total capacity of 128 seats
- China Eastern has 20 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 120 seats
- Etihad Airways has 14 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 114 seats
- Air India has 19 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 100 seats
- Qatar Airways has 14 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 100 seats
- Saudia has eight planes with first class, with a total capacity of 96 seats
- TAAG Angola Airlines has eight planes with first class, with a total capacity of 94 seats
- Air France has 21 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 84 seats
- Kuwait Airways has 10 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 80 seats
- Cathay Pacific has 13 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 78 seats
- Starlux Airlines has 10 planes with first class, with a total capacity of 40 seats
- Xiamen Air has six planes with first class, with a total capacity of 24 seats
- Thai Airways has three planes with first class, with a total capacity of 24 seats
- Garuda Indonesia has one plane with first class, with a total capacity of eight seats
What should we make of these numbers?
As you can see, Emirates has — by far — the world’s biggest first class footprint. It’s not even close, and Emirates has more than three times as many first class seats as the second largest carrier in that regard. Speaking of Emirates first class:
- The massive first class footprint also explains why the first class ground experience often doesn’t feel very personalized, and the first class lounge is the size of the entire concourse
- The quantity of high quality wine and caviar served in first class is simply next level, since we’re potentially talking about many thousands of passengers per day
- Emirates really has an incredibly high standard for its first class soft product when you consider just how massive of an operation this is
I think another airline worth calling out is SWISS. It’s the only airline in the world to have first class on all of its long haul aircraft, with no exceptions. That’s an impressive level of consistency.
Air France perhaps offers the world’s highest quality first class product, and certainly the most impressive ground experience of any airline. It’s not surprising that this is a much more boutique operation, since Air France’s first class footprint is less than 4% that of Emirates.
Bottom line
As much as some airline executives argue against the merits of international first class, the product is alive and well for many airlines, and in some situations, is even expanding. It’s pretty incredible how the size of first class fleets varies between airlines.
Emirates deserves a shoutout for offering, by far, the most first class seats of any airline, with over 2,000 of these seats in its fleet. Meanwhile SWISS deserves credit for consistency, and having first class on all long haul flights. Meanwhile Garuda Indonesia deserves credit for having the world’s most exclusive first class, available on a single plane. 😉
Do any of these first class statistics surprise you?
Not to nitpick your posting style Lucky (and I mentioned this once before a while back) but a simple table format of presenting the airline/seat/plane info would be graphically easier to read, and save repeating about 300 words on the page. " has planes with first class, with a total capacity of seats..."
Maybe this has to do with search optimization.
I flew more than 100 times from Paris to Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) in La Premiere first class with Air France and when I see today the Air France first class (La Premiere) and a lot of other first class seats and place, really only Air France offer the real La Premiere first class. About service and food, try to do better than La Premiere with their French chef koks.
Kind regards,
Alain André
A most interesting critique Alain, thank you for your view.
I was taken with the AF New La Premiere product during Ben’s live blog session earlier in the year. The product impressed me so much that I have booked (1 H&L), CDG-SIN for our next trip East.
As a matter of fact my last AF flight (Rio-Paris) was most uncomfortable, over rated and very expensive. Soon afterwards AF stopped flying Concorde on that route.
...A most interesting critique Alain, thank you for your view.
I was taken with the AF New La Premiere product during Ben’s live blog session earlier in the year. The product impressed me so much that I have booked (1 H&L), CDG-SIN for our next trip East.
As a matter of fact my last AF flight (Rio-Paris) was most uncomfortable, over rated and very expensive. Soon afterwards AF stopped flying Concorde on that route.
If you would care to elaborate on your New La Premiere experience, then I would be certain to read your post. In anticipation ….
I flew more than 100 times from Paris to Rio de Janeiro (Brasil) in La Premiere first class with Air France and when I see today the Air France first class (La Premiere) and a lot of other first class seats and place, really only Air France offer the real La Premiere first class. About service and food, try to do better than La Premiere with their French chef koks.
Kind regards,
André
American Airlines seems to be an aberration if your data is correct. American has 160 seats on 20 aircraft compared to Japan Airline with 140 seats and China Eastern with 120. I see comments that the quality is subpar but is this an opportunity to reduce the seat count to improve the first class experience?
I see you added Kuwait Airways after this post was published initially without it on the list. (I guess your recent first class experience with them was not all that memorable.)
How about Air Côte d'Ivoire? I think you reported they recently added first class in a new delivery.
What a fun post! I would be really curious what % of an airline’s planes has first class because that would help us know a rough idea of what % of flights on any given airline offer F, unrelated to how many actual seats are on each plane.
"I would be really curious what % of an airline’s planes has first class because that would help us know a rough idea of what % of flights on any given airline offer F"
That can get tricky though, because some airlines (especially British Airways) routinely fly first-equipped aircraft on routes where they don't actually sell the seats as first class.
You have such an interesting brain, Ben. :-)
While I was reading, I pondered - why haven’t US airlines rebranded their domestic first class product as business class? Is it “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” or simply because their footprint is so large it would be cost prohibitive to rebrand, or something else? Branding-wise it’s not like the average US airline’s A321 says first or business class on the seat; most references to...
You have such an interesting brain, Ben. :-)
While I was reading, I pondered - why haven’t US airlines rebranded their domestic first class product as business class? Is it “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” or simply because their footprint is so large it would be cost prohibitive to rebrand, or something else? Branding-wise it’s not like the average US airline’s A321 says first or business class on the seat; most references to the product are digital these days. As you state it is confusing for the uninitiated passenger to fly from Denver to Chicago to Cancun on the same plane type and have one of each flight use each term.
I’m not talking about the overall quality of product (let’s not go down that road!), simply the naming conventions.
So what. The calculations only have meaning as to determine your chance of being on a plane with a first class with that airline. I think the number of first class seats on a specific plane is a better metric. If there are too many it looses the experience and the exclusive aspect.
Sorry folks but I just cannot accept that American Airlines has any aircraft fitted with anything like a First Class seat fitted.
By comparison with World Class airlines, AA only offers J seats, regardless of what people might try to have us believe.
@AeroB13a:
... and i agree on that.
Some sort of decent airlines try to call their product "FIRST CLASS", but the reality is far from what any real traveler should understand as First Class.
I agree. There is the notion that BA F was the world's best business class. I thought a FC can't be worse than BA's. Then I flew AA F. AA F isn't even the best business class...
Interesting analysis, Ben! Thanks for taking the time to do the math on this. It's really impressive how some of these airlines have such small footprint yet have invested quite a lot in their First Class ground experience. I know there are ways to access these F lounges with status or paid access but it's still impressive to see the level of investment given the small volume in the grand scheme of things.
I do not see Georgian Airways on the list here. They have one 767 with 2 first class seats (although I do not know how to book them even though the plane seems to consistently be flying between TBS and TLV).
Hi Ben,
Garuda Indonesia is soon to be bringing the PK-GIF aircraft back into service after an extended period. The plane was out of commission so its livery could be updated to the presidential Republik Indonesia livery. This matches the livery of another aircraft in the fleet, PK-GIG. As a result, the airline will have two planes with identical liveries and first-class cabins available for both government and commercial use.
I'm surprised Korean Air has that large of a footprint. I feel like it's on so few routes.
I think BA deserves a nod, even if its first class isn't particularly good. It also has a very substantial first class footprint. Pretty much all frequencies to major US hubs get them
Maybe it's because Asiana Airlines' planes are included.
Asiana no longer has first class; only seats remain on the 380.
This is me finding out SWISS has more First Class seats than Singapore. I suppose it’s not too surprising, given that they install A330-300s with First Class and SQ’s main long haul workhorse (the A350) have none. What does it say we’ve heard far more about SQ’s compared to LX’s?
I imagine ability to (relatively easily) get with points is a big factor
Ray, one forgets SQ’s tremendous A380 F suits. A real treat for those who know …. :-)
Ray, several reasons for that I would say: the SQ premium brand is stronger than Swiss; the SQ network is larger; the SQ marketing budget is larger and more their promotion/publicity is more ubiquitous, by a country mile. Chances are, the target market for FC is more likely to be exposed to SQ than Swiss.
Sorry for nitpicking, but LH F is either 4 or 8 seats per bird, so the total number cannot possibly be 283.
@ Dror -- So that's where I noted in the bullet point that people may quibble with me a bit. I consider the Allegris capacity to be three rather than four. I think it would be fine to go either way there, but for suites that can accommodate multiple people, I went based on base capacity.
Yes, it can technically seat up to four people, but only three individual tickets can be sold.