Many passengers are already fed up with limited legroom on economy flights, but that hasn’t stopped airlines trying to downsize further.
Major carriers including American Airlines and British Airways have all revealed plans to increase seats on aircraft, thereby sacrificing passenger space.
But a case in the US Court of Appeals could put an end to the shrinking airline seat saga.
The court ordered the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to review guidelines for seat space on planes.
It was prompted by a 2015 petition from passenger group Flyers Rights, called “Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat”.
Flyers Rights said: “The average American flier has grown steadily larger in both height and girth.
“The decrease in seat size, coupled with the increase in passenger size, imperilled passengers’ health and safety by slowing emergency egress and by causing deep vein thrombosis.”
According to Flyers Rights, seat pitch in the US has shrunk from 35 inches on average in the 1970s to just 31 inches today, and in some cases as little as 28.
The FAA argued against the group’s concerns about traveller safety, saying downsizing legroom did “not raise an immediate safety or security concern”.
But the court has rejected these arguments, instead advising the FAA to reconsider its position.
In their ruling, court judges said; “As many have no doubt noticed, aircraft seats and the spacing between them have been getting smaller and smaller, while American passengers have been growing in size.
“The problem here is that the administration has given no reasoned explanation for withholding the tests in their entirety, and it has declined to file them under seal or in redacted form.
“As a matter of basic physics, at some point seat and passenger dimensions would become so squeezed as to impede the ability of passengers to extricate themselves from their seats and get over to an aisle.
“The question is not whether seat dimensions matter, but when. Economy-seating pitch could decrease to levels that could impede emergency egress.”
Claiming a “victory” with the ruling, Flyers Rights have called on the FAA to implement an advisory committee to set minimum seat standards.
An FAA spokesperson told Reuters it does consider seat pitch in evacuation assessments of aircraft.
They added: “We are studying the ruling carefully and any potential actions we may take to address the court’s findings.”
