Can Airline Seating Get Any Worse? ‘A New Form of Torture Chamber’
Like nearly everyone who boards a commercial airliner these days, Tina Dixon hates the tiny, uncomfortable seats. At 6-foot-6, she has a point. “They are a new form of a torture chamber," said Dixon, 62 years old, from Blackshear, Ga.
“I don’t have a folding femur. Most people don’t." Passengers have been sounding off for years about airline seating—no legroom, thin cushions, too narrow. Now politicians are listening.
A bill introduced in Congress last month to update aircraft evacuation standards would compel federal regulators to study seat sizes and spacing. Tito Echeverria, who used to travel frequently as a plant manager for a manufacturing company, has had too many awkward interactions with other squished travelers. “You end up having to consistently rub legs with someone, even though you’re not really trying to," said Echeverria, 32, from Ontario, Calif.
“You’re just freaking there next to them." U.S. regulations cover aisle width and the number of seats allowed on planes, but not minimum seat sizes. The Federal Aviation Administration has said in court it isn’t required to set seat standards unless it finds they are necessary to protect passenger safety.
In late 2019 and early 2020, it simulated emergency evacuations and found seat size and spacing didn’t adversely affect the process. Last year, the FAA sought public feedback on whether seat sizes posed safety issues, and it got an earful. More than 26,000 public comments poured in over a three-month stretch.
“Airplane seat sizes are appalling," one commenter wrote. “They are built for people from the ’40s and ‘50s. They cannot remotely accommodate a person over 6 feet or 200 pounds.
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