What is so good about seat 12J on British Airways’ 747s? Well, if you’re a business traveller, it’s because sitting there may help you get off the plane before the other passengers and beat the immigration queues. Such gems are at the heart of a new website seatplans.com, launched by the people behind Business Traveller magazine.

The site’s developers are careful to point out that it is in a beta stage (isn’t every new website these days?) but it already has a considerable volume of content. The developers have taken seat plans from a huge number of airlines and combined them with the magazine’s Tried and Tested reviews. Now that the site is live, travellers will add their own user reviews to the mix.

Tom Otley, editor in chief of Business Traveller magazine, says: “The purpose of the site is firstly to allow passengers to see detailed information on all the major classes on all the major airlines, so they can, for instance, make a decision between the various premium economies flying on a particular route. Once they have read that information, they can then drill down and look at the seat plans of the aircraft. I don’t think we’re over-estimating interest in the subject, but only time will tell.”

Otley says that picking the right seat is vital. “Business travellers know that not every seat is equal. Whether it’s a question of window or aisle, or even the dreaded middle seat, close to a toilet or by the exit or bulkhead for extra room, choosing the right seat, and taking advice from fellow flyers and experts can make a big difference. On a long haul flight, you often have at least ten hours coveting your neighbours’ seat,” he said.

So what?, you might say, there is already seatguru.com out there which is good enough for me. Certainly, Seatguru has better seat plans and far more content – it has been around for years and is owned by Tripadvisor (with the financial muscle of parent company Expedia).

Otley responds: “We’re coming at it from a different angle, focusing on the airline seat first, and then the seat plans second. We also have editorial from Business Traveller magazine, both here in the UK and from the ten editions around the world. We are also international in focus – hence the presence of airlines such as Kingfisher and the whole of the Qatar Airways fleet.”