Thursday 10 November 2022 05:47 PM Travelers call on FAA to widen seats - as airlines admit they SHRUNK to deal ... trends now
Fed-up travelers have demanded the FAA widen seats on passenger planes after airlines admitted they were shrunk to satisfy recent demand and cheaper ticket prices, a string of scathing complaints on the agency's website has revealed.
The outcry comes after Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials in August asked the public for their views on the size and subsequent safety of their mandated seats, which have withered drastically over the years.
Within months, more than 26,000 travelers had responded - with nearly all airing complaints concerning a lack of leg room and comfort on American flights.
The comment section paints a bleak picture of diminishing passenger experience on the US' most popular airlines - with the word 'torture' appearing in more than 200 of the passengers' posts.
The pubic forum was closed this past week, with the FAA - which has no rules for seat dimensions and has been put under pressure by Congress to make a judgment concerning their accepted measurements - yet to level a response.
It comes as several US carriers have revealed they have reduced seat widths by as much as two inches from the 18.5 inches that was almost universal in years past
Legroom has also shrunk drastically over the years, from 35 inches to 28 on some carriers
It comes as several US carriers have revealed they have reduced seat widths by as much as two inches from the 18.5 inches that was almost universal in years past.
Legroom has also shrunk drastically, to 31 inches from an average of 35. On some carriers, that distance - measured from one point in a seat to the same point on one in front or behind - is as little as 28 inches.
The agency has since been subject to increased pressure from lawmakers as well as passengers as to the legality of those changes, amid concerns the seats are too tight for passengers to evacuate.
Airlines, meanwhile, have pushed back on calls to widen their seats, arguing the seats are wide enough and far enough apart to allow for fast evacuation.
'The current seats are too small for Americans of average size, myself included,' one concerned commenter, named Emily Clarke, wrote to the agency amid the outflow of negative comments regarding seat size concern.
Clarke added that she is concerned the shifts, made by carriers to raise their bottom lines, 'will significantly impact my ability to quickly evacuate the aircraft in case of emergency.'
She, like so many others, would call on the FAA to take action and mandate those airlines with new seat requirements, to address those safety concerns - not to mention discomfort.
'My wife and I just recently flew to Grand Cayman on a Boeing 737 800/900 and were noticeably uncomfortable in the tiny seats,' commenter John Naughton wrote in one such critique.
'Not only are the tiny seats terribly uncomfortable,' Naughton noted that the packed planes seemed 'to be a
