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PrivateJetBS | Edition 35

The Seat Count Is... Subjective?

Trust the Process, Not the Promises.™

Let's talk about one of the most inconsistently applied numbers in every listing sheet: seat count.

Double-club aircraft, four individual seats forward, four individual seats aft, plus a belted lav. One broker calls it a 9. Another calls it an 8+1. The FAA doesn't care. That lavatory ("lav") seat is certified for takeoff and landing either way, load sheet and all. But the industry needs to agree on how we notate it, and I'll tell you where I land: the lav should always be the "+1." The base count is what's actually in the cabin.

Here's why.

A seat in the cabin and a seat in the lavatory are not the same product. Cabin seats are what a buyer is mission-planning around: who sits where, how the airplane works for four passengers vs. eight. The lav seat is a certification technicality that happens to also be a place a human could theoretically sit. Folding it into the base number flattens a real distinction that matters to how the airplane actually gets used.

Let's also be precise about what "cabin seating" even means, because this is where a lot of the sloppiness starts.

• Single is one individual seat. Could be forward or aft facing.
• 2-Place is two individual seats, one facing one. (often opposite the cabin form a divan or conference group)
• Club is four individual seats, two facing two.
• Double club is two sets of that: eight individual seats total.
• Conference Group is two seats beside each other, across a table from 2 seats beside each other, on one side of a place: four individual seats total.
• Divan is a side-facing bench, typically three to four seats combined into one unit. It is a different element entirely, not a variant of club.
• Some aircraft also offer single or double side-facing seats, often positioned near the cabin entrance, in light or mid size jets. That placement often shrinks the galley to make room.

None of that changes the lav question. Whether the cabin is a double club, a club-plus-divan, or a club with side-facing seats up front, every one of those positions is genuinely part of the cabin and belongs in the base count. The lav doesn't, because it isn't cabin seating. It's a certified position that happens to exist outside the cabin layout entirely.

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So the notation should be:

• 4 forward + 4 aft (double club), no belted lav → 8
• Same cabin, belted lav → 8+1
• Club + divan, no belted lav → 9
• Club + divan, belted lav → 9+1
• Club + conference + 2 Place + 4 place divans → 14+1

All of those seats count in the base number. Only the lav gets the "+1"

Why this matters:

• For buyers, "8+1" tells you the truth at a glance: eight real cabin seats, plus a certified but nobody's-actually-sitting-there-unless-they-have-to ninth. You're not overpaying for phantom capacity.
• For sellers and brokers, this is a clear, consistent, and honest way to differentiate cabin seating from certification seating without losing the certified number entirely. You still disclose the lav seat certification, you just don't let it masquerade as one of the cabin seats.
• For anyone comparing aircraft across a fleet, this gives you an apples-to-apples cabin number instead of a certification number dressed up as a sales spec.

I haven't even dove into the crew rest (seating for crew members, typically found in heavy jets, allowing for a rest period during a long trip) or jump seats (seat that folds out of a cabinet, typically used by a flight attendant for take off and landings).

I don't care if it's a 30-minute repositioning leg or a four-hour transcon. Nobody's fighting for the lav seat on landing. The "+1" notation says exactly that, honestly, every time.

Do you disagree? Let me know why, I am genuinely curious.

Trust the Process, Not the Promises.™​
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Michael Barber PrivateJetBS Newsletter ​Managing Director & VP, Sales Operations at jetAVIVA​ Mobile, WhatsApp, & Signal: +1.919.475.8506 ​​​​

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