United Airlines' aging fleet of widebody Boeing 767s suddenly are taking on a whole new appeal — particularly for travelers stuck in the economy cabin who might like a roomier seat.
United said today it has completed the first retrofit of 14 widebody Boeing (NYSE: BA) 767-300 aircraft scheduled for a makeover by the end of 2018.
The really good news about the overdue retrofits is that United is installing a significantly wider leather-upholstered seat in the economy cabin of the made-over planes.
The new seat is an extraordinarily spacious 18.5 inches wide. The new economy cabin seat replaces one that was 17.6 inches wide.
By way of further comparison, United's brand-spanking-new Dreamliner 787-9 going into service has economy cabin seats that range from 16.3 to 17.3 inches wide.
As anyone knows who has been seated in an economy class seat for an extended period of time, every tenth of an inch difference in seat width can make a huge difference in comfort over the long haul.
A United spokeswoman today could not say whether the more spacious economy cabin seats going into the 767s would be installed on other United planes up for retrofitting.
United customers traveling in the Polaris international business class cabin on the retrofitted 767s are getting a roomier experience, too. The new Polaris seats are 21 inches wide, up from 18.8 inches on the previous iteration of business class seat on United's 767s.
The first of the redone United 767-300s departs tonight from the United hub at Newark Liberty International Airport bound for London's Heathrow Airport.
The United spokeswoman could not say if any of the retroffited 767s eventually would wind up on routes from United's hub at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. But United uses 767 aircraft almost exclusively on its Chicago-London route.
United Airlines is a unit of United Continental Holdings (NYSE: UAL).
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