Asian travellers feel the crunch as smaller seats and less legroom appears to be the trend for region’s low-cost carriers Cebu Pacific and AirAsia

Philippine airline Cebu has announced it will buy 31 Airbus neo planes, which with a reorganised layout, will allow for 460 passengers per aircraft

Asians no different from rest of the world in that they may say they want more legroom, but will buy based on price, expert says

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Passengers may feel the squeeze as Asian airlines such as Cebu Pacific try to pack more people onto a flight in future. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 5:01pm, 23 Jun 2019Updated: 11:35pm, 23 Jun 2019

Growing Asian airlines will shrink seat space even further and sacrifice legroom to squeeze more passengers onto planes, with experts predicting budget carriers are betting big on demand in the region soaring higher.

Among the leading Asian low-cost carriers making moves at the Paris Air Show this week, Cebu Pacific bought new jets to squeeze a record number of passengers onto its planes while AirAsia upgraded to the largest single-aisle jets.

Philippine carrier Cebu announced it would buy 31 Airbus “neo” planes – 16 A330-900neo widebody jets and 15 A320neos – in a US$6.8 billion (HK$53.1 billion) deal.

AirAsia, the dominant Southeast Asian budget airline group, upgraded an order for 253 Airbus A320neo jets to the largest single-aisle A321neo model, which could fly on average 45 more passengers and was certified to fly with 244 seats.

Some 8.2 billion people are expected to travel by air by 2037, according to an industry forecast, with half of the growth in the Asia-Pacific region. Photo: AFP

Cebu’s order for A330-900neo planes was most eye-catching. Reorganising the galley, toilets and adding slimmer seats would allow the airline to fit 460 passengers per plane in an all-economy layout. These would feature non-reclining narrow seats with either 28 or 29 inches of legroom.