Hacker News Reader

Comment by xorgar831 | Hacker News Reader

Boeing does this with their seats in the factory too, they put a picture of a Lamborghini on the seats since they cost the same.

EDIT: Yes, it's hard to believe a seat costs the same as a Lamborghini, that's exactly why they put the picture on it. This is mainly for the first class seats, though rows apparently cost about the same too.

View on HN

Only certain high-end business/first seats I assume? I can't believe a standard economy seat costs $200,000+

The commenter above could have been saying the seats cost the same as Lamborghini seats, which is plausible, or that it costs the same to print a picture of a Lamborghini onto the packaging as it does to print a picture of an airplane seat, which is true. There are many plausible ways to interpret their statement as being correct, but I don't think they're saying any airline seats cost $200k.

No, the first class airplane seats costs $250k each.

https://gizmodo.com/heres-why-a-single-first-class-seat-can-...

Also it looks like a row of non-first class seats can also cost about the same: https://www.mirror.co.uk/lifestyle/travel/inside-the-dreamli...

ok, that's pretty intense.

Thompson Aerospace in NI make front-of-cabin seats and they charter freighter aircraft to deliver them rather than relying on shipping companies

I think the implication is that it's a seat for a Lambo. A plane seat is a lot smaller than a whole car.

https://247wallst.com/aerospace-defense/2014/06/03/why-a-boe...

For some perspective a Boeing 747 costs $357,000,000 they have a seating capacity of 416.

416 x $200,000 is only $83,200,000 so...honestly...I could see it.

It's hard to say how much anything actually costs in aviation because no one pays list price and are outfitted per the buyers' specs (why airlines all have their own in cabin look). Discounts are usually north of 50% off "list". Economy style seats don't have a lot going on and definitely don't cost the same as a Lambo.

You can even buy your own if you want to be uncomfortable in your own home:

http://usedairlineseats.com/product/set-of-coach-class-tripl...

True. I wasn't saying for sure that was the price. I just wouldn't be too surprised if it ended up averaging out somewhere around there between economy and first class seats. Things you wouldn't expect can be weirdly high priced. Aircraft are just one of those things I could see just about everything being more expensive than you'd think. If only because there's less manufacturers specializing in aircraft parts and the companies buying them tend to be those that have enough money to be buying parts for aircraft.

You could very much imagine that the cumulative cost in project disruption and inspections if a row of seats arrives damaged and then fails safety checks would easily exceed the cost of a Lamborghini.

> Economy style seats don't have a lot going on

Actually they do. The drive to make thinner and lighter seats means lots of exotic materials can go into them. If the seats include in-flight entertainment devices, that'll increase the cost too. Plus the seats still have to be certified to the same stringent safety standards as the first-class seats.

Of course the claim was that a row of economy seats costs about what one first-class seat does. I think that's believable.

That $357m is actually the cost of the plane with no fit out. Just a big empty skin.

It doesn't include engines or avionics?

Engines are typically bought from the engine manufacturer. The bigger ones cost tens of millions of dollars each.

I was referring to the quoted price and asking whether that price point includes engines and/or avionics.

Given that the airplane manufacturers typically aren't the ones selling the engines (or the required maintenance) the list price is for the airframe itself. I believe Chrichton touches on this in his book, Airframe.

I heard about also over 10 years ago, some airplane maintenance companys print things like cars and houses on spare parts, so people know about what they cost.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com