No more nightmares about feeling cramped and suffocated when you have to take a longish domestic flight. Especially, if you are flying a low-cost airline.
Just pay an additional Rs 300, and get yourself either an emergency row seat or a seat in the first row of the aircraft. This way you would enjoy additional legroom of 3 to 4 inches, which can make a difference to your comfort level. In some aircraft the additional legroom is about 9 inches.
As most Indian carriers have a fleet of either Airbus A320s or Boeing 737-800s/900s aircraft, there will be two emergency exit doors in the middle on either side of the aircraft. Thus there will be two rows, or 12 seats, with greater legroom. However, those in the first emergency row will have to bear with the fact that those seats don’t recline. Also, in all of these rows, one cannot store anything under the seats or near one’s legs, like it can be done in other rows. IndiGo Airlines is the one that has started this practice. According to travel agents, there is a huge demand for these extra legroom seats from frequent flyers, especially from passengers who are tall and are on the heavier side.
Spicejet and Go Air charge passengers Rs 50 for booking a seat online. So, if you are worried about getting stuck in a middle seat, or you are the kind that likes a window or aisle seat, this is an option for you.
The emergency row seats and the front seats are however not an option to choose from. Air Asia, which connects nine Indian cities to Malaysia and other Southeast Asian countries, charges Rs 1,520 for what it calls ‘hot seats’, which are located in the front rows and at the emergency rows.
"This concept of charging for specific seats is done globally, primarily by low-cost airlines, and is part of the airlines’ ancillary revenue model. In an airline like Ryanair, which is one of the world’s best low-cost airlines, over 20% of its revenues come from its ancillary business. This is why the airline can keep its fares low and passenger traffic high," says Kapil Kaul, CEO Indian Subcontinent and Middle East, at CAPA (Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation).
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