I was stuck with 28 inches.
I’m traveling from New York to Chicago on an Airbus A319 and I have the blueprints of Aircraft Characteristics, Airport and Maintenance Planning documents. The seat pitch in economy class, which is where I’ll be sitting, is between 28 and 30 inches. This is the distance between my seat and the one in front of me and it is also known as legroom. The airplane seats weren’t always designed this way and I’m trying to find out why we have lost legroom in the process. I’m 5'9" which is average according to Google and when I’m sitting down in an upright position, my buttock-to-knee length is 20 inches. However, my Australian friend Chris and Brian, who I had the privilege of sitting next to, did not have the same spacious feeling as I did. Chris is 6'0" and Brian is 5'10" and they both had very little legroom.
When I watch movies from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, the seats seem much more spacious and luxurious. This is true, as the DC-3 which American Airlines began using in 1936 had a seat pitch of 39 inches. In the late 60s, Boeing’s 737 took over and it had seat pitches of 30 to 34 inches. Today, the biggest competitor to the 737 is the Airbus A320 and it has seat pitches of 28 to 29 inches. I paid extra for a premium economy seat on my flight back from Chicago to New York and I ended up in the exit row with 14 inches of legroom. This was luxurious compared to the 6 inches I had before. The schematics show that if I had paid for first class, I would have gotten 39 inches of legroom, the same as the DC-3. However, I was stuck with 28 inches. but it can be quite annoying.
I was recently in premium economy and, as I sat there with no TV in front of me, I began to think about the economics of comfort. In the past, seat selection and other amenities such as carry-on bags were all bundled together in the ticket price. However, due to rising fuel costs and a decrease in people travelling, airlines started to unbundle these amenities and began charging customers more for seat selection. JetBlue and Spirit have increased their overall revenues by several percentage points due to these fees. Despite this, according to the Bureau of Transportation’s historical statistics, domestic flights have actually become less expensive when adjusted for inflation. This is due to unbundling and innovations such as thinner seats, which have allowed airlines to add an extra row of seats. In 2018, Congress sought to introduce a minimum dimension for passenger seats, including seat pitch, as part of the FAA Reauthorization Act. However, there are still no regulations due to a court decision that there was not enough evidence that small seats materially slow the exit of passengers in an emergency. For now, comfort still comes at a cost, and I was lucky enough to not have to pay it on my two flights. I definitely feel more cramped when the person in front of me reclines their seat. What about you? Are you in favor of or against reclining plane seats? Let us know in the comments below.