Originally Posted by
dixi188
I remember working at Airline Engineering, (Monarch) back end of 1979. They acquired another B720B from Maersk.
We were fitting the seats and PSUs for 179 seats but when we got to the back of the LH side the seat rails stopped about 2 ft short of normal so we were told to just move all the seats forward to make them all fit.
I think the seat pitch was about 28 ins for quite a few rows. This aircraft was going on charter for P&O cruises to the Far East. I'm glad I wasn't a passenger being 6ft 2in.
The initial trio for Monarch were 720-051B acquired in 1972 from Northwest, first in and last out in 1983, which Monarch got good value from. The 1979 Maersk aircraft appeared to be from the same model number and initial purchaser, but had a different background, for the initial three were from a foursome which Northwest found surplus before delivery, so had been fitted out and sub-leased new to TWA (otherwise not a known 720B operator, and who Howard Hughes had caused to get into some financial difficulties with Boeing for new 707 deliveries) for some years, before Northwest finally took them on. The Maersk one was new direct to Northwest. Maybe a galley, a coat cupboard, or similar had been there in Northwest's own cabin spec, and they had just lived with the little difference afterwards.
Of course Monarch may have refitted the rails themselves some time earlier. I gather AEL could do pretty much anything short of building a new aircraft.