Cabin enhancements boost comfort while maintaining Spirit's industry-leading commitment to affordable travel
The new wider seats include more cushion, new headrests and reaffirms the additional usable legroom created by curved seatback designs
Spirit Airlines (NYSE: SAVE) continues to revolutionize ultra low-fare travel by adding the latest state-of-the-art design features in aircraft seats. The new Vector Light™️ seats and the Vector Premium™️ product for the Big Front Seats®, manufactured by HAECO Cabin Solutions, were officially unveiled today at the APEX EXPO 2022 event in Long Beach, Calif. Each Vector Light seat will be wider, include extra cushion and new, more comfortable features to continue enhancing the Guest experience.
In 2019, Spirit announced a completely new-look interior with roomier & ergonomic seats, a larger tray table, and additional pre-recline on every row. Spirit continues to build on that milestone with key seat changes based on Guest feedback. The redesigned interior will be installed on Spirit's new aircraft deliveries starting in late January 2023. In total, 33 new A320 Family aircraft are planned for delivery throughout 2023.
“Our cabin refresh in 2019 was a significant enhancement in the Guest experience, and these new seats are another great step forward in increasing value for our Guests. We're adding new features while, at the same time, continuing to provide More Go with our same ultra-low fares,” said Lania Rittenhouse, Vice President of Guest Experience, Brand, and Communications for Spirit Airlines.
More Room
Each seat will gain a half-inch of width. The new seat technology unlocks previously unused space with a design that fits closer to the wall of the aircraft, creating an opportunity to increase seat width. This innovation also supports the optimization of cabin operations by adding the extra room without removing space from the aisle to ensure fast boarding and deplaning for Guests. Spirit's middle seats will continue to be an inch wider than aisle and window seats.
Spirit continues to champion innovative curved seatback designs that unlock space at the knee level. This additional space amounts to about two more inches of knee space compared to flatback seats on legacy airlines with the same pitch. These extra pockets of space are omitted in the standard industry “pitch” metric, which is focused on flatback seats. So, Guests have more personal space than what the “pitch” measurement indicates.
More Comfort
All seats will now have more cushion and newly added headrests. Big Front Seats® are seeing changes in design to include more cushion, nearly an inch more pre-recline, easier to reach tray tables and a wider seatback.
More Fuel-Efficient
The new seats come with an incremental environmental benefit as well. Even with the new features, the weight of each new Vector Light seat will amount to a decrease of nearly 11 ounces per seat thanks to advances in seat frame technology. These small changes have outsized effects in a large-scale operation, resulting in sizable reductions of fuel burn across the fleet.
Spirit's Elevated Guest Experience
Spirit continues its commitment to Invest in the Guest, which entails a number of initiatives aimed at delivering the best value in the sky:
Spirit's Fit Fleet® is one of the most fuel-efficient fleets in the industry, with 33 brand new planes projected for delivery in 2023.
The Free Spirit® loyalty program, which is the fastest way to earn rewards and status.
Fast onboard Wi-Fi that allows Guests to watch content from streaming services.
