Aircraft empty weight vs number of passenger seats

[Gilles Hudicourt]

I was told that when an A380 is full of passengers that the hold generally nearly bulks out, leaving little room for freight.

The purpose of this excercise is not to compare widebodies to narrow bodies but to compare aircraft of the same category against each other, as far as empty weight, especially older models to newer ones.

I would like to see the numbers for older 747 (-200 and -300) as well as DC-10, MD-11 and L-1011s.

Of course one would have to look at other figures such as the relation between an aircrafts' OEW and its MZFW, and also the relation between the OEW, the MZFW and its MTOW, for significant inceases in the two latter numbers may explain an increase of Empty weight.

Comparing Wiki numbers for the 737-900 and the 757-200. Same manufacturer, same fuselage cross section. The 737-900 is 42.1 meters in length and can carry a max of 220 pax in a single class high density config.
It is listed at 44,700 Kg, which would give it 203Kg/seat.
The 757-200 is 47.3 meters long and can carry a max of 239 passengers. It is listed at 57,800 Kg, which would give it 242 Kg/seat.
No wider holds. No wider fuselage. The difference seems to be in the metal required to reach 115 tonne MTOW, vs 85 tonnes for the 737-900.

There was a time when some manufacturers made wide body medium range aircraft. The Airbus 300-B4s, the A300-600, the A310-200 and the early B767-200s which were mostly used on short domestic routes and were not ETOPS. No such aircraft are being built today.
However, today, it seems more economical to dispatch two 737-700s back to back to a single short range destination than to cover the same short route segment with a larger aircraft having the same seating capacity as the Boeings put together. This was a surprise to me when I discovered it.......