Former United CEO may enjoy new, wider first-class seat

Days after United Airlines Chief Executive Jeff Smisek resigned amid a federal corruption investigation, the carrier announced plans to install new, extra-spacious seats for first-class passengers in more than 200 aircraft.

The timing is interesting given that Smisek left the airline with free first-class flights for life on top of nearly $5 million in separation pay and 60,000 shares of stock.

The new leather-bound seats, created with the help of the London design firm PriestmanGood, are 21.1 inches wide, nearly an inch wider that the current first-class seat on United’s narrow body planes. The pitch — defined as the distance between the back of your seat and the back of the seat in front of you — remains the same, 37 inches.

The seats include a tablet holder on the tray table and an in-seat power outlet, two features not included in current first-class seats.

The seats will begin appearing next week, starting on an Airbus A319, a plane reserved for short and medium-distance domestic flights.

By comparison, the economy seats on United’s A319 are 17.7 inches wide, with a pitch of 30 inches.

Smisek’s departure from United was connected to a federal investigation into whether the airline tried to influence the former chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey by creating a special twice-a-week flight from Newark to the chairman’s vacation home in South Carolina. Port Authority officials nicknamed the half-empty route the “chairman’s flight.”

United officials said they aren’t sure what, if any, role Smisek had in developing the new first-class seat, but it may not be surprising if United’s new premium-class throne gets dubbed the “Smisek seat.”

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