The FAA May Put An End to Shrinking Airline Seats and Cramped Leg Room

Believe it when I see it

I now refuse to fly overseas unless it is absolutely necessary. There is no such thing now as "flying for pleasure". It is VERY uncomfortable flying long distance in these sardine cans.

I am just over 6 feet tall and 260 pounds. And I can tell you that on United, American, Southwest, Jet Blue. I can not even sit in their seats for more than 10-15 minutes. My hips start hurting from the tight space and HARD armrests. And I can not stretch my legs, because they are allowing SO MANY people to place bags, purses, and junk under their seats. STOP ALLOWING check sized bags disguised as BACKPACKS into the cabin! Alaska Airlines was pretty good about keeping bags in cabin to a minimum!~

It’s about time that someone looked into this! Economy travelers would be forever grateful! I’m most interested to see
the outcome.

EPA Head Says He Needs to Fly First Class Because People Are Mean to Him in Coach. I am sure my boss will buy that excuse.

Making the seats more comfortable, should be a requirement. Hell the airlines would have us standing strapped to the walls, so the FAA needs to get involved. I am 6'2" and 200 lbs. I was a pilot for a major airline and getting people to evacuate quickly if needed due to an emergency is very important. Proper leg room is important for evacuating.

When they stop lobbyists from lining congressperson's pockets, then we'll see some action...

Small seats equals more irritated passengers, equals more violence in the air. Is this really what the airlines want? Staff want? Think smart.

WHO FITS IN COACH? At 5'1 and 100 lbs, I find that coach seats seem to fit me, but with little room to spare. I feel cramped in the bathrooms. I cannot imagine the discomfort felt by taller and heavier passengers, especially on longer flights. Although I resent how some heavier travelers 'Spill over' into my space effectively trapping me and causing me discomfort, my heart goes out to them for having to endure embarrassment as well as discomfort. FAA - TAKE NOTICE!

Being an old-timer and having flown airlines since DC-3s, and observed corporation management for all my life, I feel that this reflects poor management with the attitude of treating the public like cattle. Here we have youthful managers, fresh out of school, trying to make a name for themselves by reducing service to the public. If they save the company a little money, they can put a great new block on their resume.
Corporations operating air service should hire better quality personnel. People with upper class values who don't stoop to such stuff. It's called CLASS. Air fares are to me very expensive today (I first flew from Boston to Washington for $10 with General Patton's widow watching out for me all the way down), and unless the passenger is very ignorant, this stuff is an insult. Think about driving.

Would be nice United A320s are the worst my knees touch the back of the seat in front of me with my backside against my seat. Strange thing CRJ200s a smaller plane I have more room.

At one time "Standing up" was discussed.

Until TSA is history, a Catnapper-sized seat will not get me to voluntarily fly commercial.

I work in a a hospital ICU next door to a major airline hub. We see the results of cramped seats/long international flights on a fairly frequent basis

I suspect I’m going to be taking the unpopular viewpoint here.

On one hand, I’m 6’3” and pretty slim. I’m also just on the north side of “middle-aged”, and don’t have the flexibility or cartilage of a gymnast. Sitting in some economy seats means sitting bolt-upright and still jamming my knees into the back of the seat in front of me. If I could manage to stick my legs under the seat, my size-13’s are poking out from under the seat of the passenger in front of me, which feels kind of rude, and that mother********* metal rod in the seat pocket is pressed directly into my tibia hard enough that there’ll be a bruise for a couple days.

On the other hand, unless it’s truly tied to safety (evacuation, etc), I’m kind of against telling an airline exactly what kind of service they have to provide. I would never fly spirit airlines in a million years, but some people find the savings an acceptable trade-off (or simply necessary, to allow them to travel within their means). I don’t want to tell those people they have to pay more.

If there’s a fact-based argument that increasing the number of seats (or decreasing pitch) impedes an evacuation of assisting a passenger in distress and unable to move, okay, I’m all ears. The air-rage argument, I don’t buy it. A disproportionate number of them happen in the business and first sections of aircraft, either because of intoxication or a passenger who truly thinks the rules don’t apply to them.

There’s a place for restaurants that have a dollar menu, and restaurants where the cheapest appetizer is $40. I think there’s a place for cheap/unpleasant and comfortable/expensive air travel.

(My personal solution: When I considered a new job, I said because of my physical size, any business travel has to be in an “extra-legroom” seat. Not business or first, just a few extra inches so I’m not so sore that I can’t work effectively when I land. Has never raised an objection.)

If one airline were to differentiate itself with more legroom and more seat width in its economy class, by reducing its number of economy class seats, and further back that up by actually marketing these numbers, I for one would gladly pay $40 more for a seat on this airline. If they can charge a little more per pax for decent seat width and legroom, wouldn't that make up for the loss in revenues from reduced seats?

With the current administraion's 'war on overregulation", perhaps when the FAA is under new management it will simply declare seats "not a safety requirement" and allow the carriers to eliminate them altogether if they so wish. /s

The narrower pitch has got to slow evacuation time. Maybe we could go to Jethro Bodine Airlines from the Beverly Hillbillies, when he converted Mr. Drysdale's jet with wood planks and clothes line rope for seat belts

Capitalist theory would have one airline making their seats bigger. When the other airlines see their numbers shrinking, they also will enlarge their seats.

US airlines are an oligopoly. There is no alternative to reasonably speedy travel. They could care less about the passenger experience. I despise them and their stockholders for treating humanity as they do.

Airline profits are down because fuel is up and they're spending money like crazy not because people aren't flying.

I hope the FAA does the right thing and introduces regulation but I doubt it.

I was recently on a flight from Houston to Orlando. My seat mate was a big guy. About six foot and 300 pounds. He had to ask the flight attendant for a seat belt extender. He took up his seat and a good part of my space. I'm six foot and 200 pounds. Pure misery. Airlines should make really big people buy two seats.

I worked for Eastern Air Lines in various management positions for over 10 years and we tried to reduce costs after de-regulation when fixed fares were eliminated. Airlines costs were out of control at that time. All they competed on was service and schedule. Of course the unions finally did Eastern in and hurt many people in Miami and other cities. I moved to another profession 15 years before they closed their doors. Airplanes today are like busses in rural Mexico. I am surprised they don't bring chickens in cages onboard as their service animals. The travelling public are basically chasing cheap prices and the get what they pay for, crappy seats and worse service. When I worked for Eastern we were not allowed onboard without a jacket. Today they are barely dressed. Real slobs.

Please FAA, Please!!!!

May FAA hurry up and do so.....

Great news!!!

Well, my story is not as bad as most of you folks. I am a bigger fellow,(6'3,260 lbs.)my son lives now in Hawaii. Come and see me here, stay a few weeks. I don't want to go thru the crap he does, just coming back for Christmas. If I go there, Iam thinking, train from Ia.to the west coast, then boat to the island. Haven't really got into the logisitics yet, but hey, I can get up, walk around, and see some of this wonderfull country at ground level.

Someone needs to help all of us out in coach

Sorry, I would like to add, I flew Ozark Airlines out of ALO for many years. Nicest crews, and people you could ask for. Gooniey birds rock! DC3's, now that's flyin.

Hooray!!

It's about time,hopefully it happens. This is a reason there is so much "air rage" and people are so cranky

As passengers grow wider and taller the airlines shrink seats in width and pitch. To make matters worse the have gone to a slimline seat, in their words to save weight, which is the most uncomfortable seat they have yet to deploy.

The passengers think the airlines over charge so they want rock bottom pricing. The airlines give them rock bottom pricing for the travel portion of the ticket. Then come the add on fee’s: Checked baggage fees, Carry on fees, food on board fees and on some airlines even feels for the water and soda.

Everyone complains about the fees but no one stops to think of just what that ticket costs them in fees. IF you take and add up all the fees you paid and compare them to ticket prices back when all of this was included in the fare. Yu will find in most cases you are paying more then the older ticket after adjusting for inflation.

File this under the heading be careful what you ask for.

About time we all don't ride horses for a living!

It took 11 years, yes, 11, for the government to come up with the three hour tarmac limit. You may remember the first outcry came when Northwest planes were backed up in Detroit during a blizzard. Northwest kept landing planes even though the gates were full. There was a huge furor. But the ruling didn't come until 11 years later due to the airlines fighting the rule and government bureaucracy inertia. Don't look for a ruling anytime soon on seat size or pitch.

Don’t disagree with all the sentiments here, but just got off a AA SFO-CLT red-eye and it wasn’t terrible. Most of the time I will either pay for the up-front seat and occasionally get upgraded, but wasn’t available last night and I didn’t mind at all.
I think the worst part of flying these days is the disdain everyone has going in to it. I love flying, wish I did it professionally but content with life (other than the 10 seconds when I step on the a/c and have to go right instead of left). I still always book a window seat and track flights in hopes of seeing another a/c closely zoom by at almost 1000 knots. I’m still amazed at the idea of what we are doing, how high we are doing it and how quickly we get there.

Ftr- I’m 6’ and 223. I have some weight to lose, to be sure and I much prefer the front 6 rows...but enjoy the journey just as much from row 28, as long as I have a window seat.

I thought the minimum seat pitch was already an FFA defined dimension, not for PAX comfort but as a matter of safety, especially in an evacuation........

This has to be discrimination doesn't it or one clever way to cut down on cost. Less big folks equals less weight and more seats, less weight per volume equals more profit right? LOL

WHO FITS IN COACH? At 5'1 and 100 lbs, I find that coach seats seem to fit me, but with little room to spare. I feel cramped in the bathrooms. I cannot imagine the discomfort felt by taller and heavier passengers, especially on longer flights. Although I resent how some heavier travelers

Make Trump and Co fly coach for a bit. That will teach them what to do

Ha!!!! wait for 40 years!!!!The FAA is so corrupt and full of political leftist hacks it will continue its go crash policy.

I’m all for a mandated minimum seat pitch. I’m also in favour if a $ amount charged for carry on luggage, murse and purse excepted. Airlines have for years been able to increase the number of seats by manufacturers building longer aircraft of the same model. Case in point the 737 originally carried 119 and now over 180 and when you get so long you hit the tail on rotate they build a twin aisle version, and so on. Checked baggage quantified by number of and weight should be free. The single aisle stretch 8 carried 249 and the L1011 carried 362 albeit with thicker guage metal and thirsty RR RB-211’s. Lighter airframes and more fuel efficient engines helped the bottom line but the travelling public allowed themselves to be put in this predicament by settling for discomfort! Just like the 1200 sq ft. apartment/condo has given way to the 600 - 900 sq ft version but with the same number of people in a unit, however, now there are twice as many units in the building. Rant now over.

thank god,
along time in waitng