The Hamilton Spectator

Judge decries the ‘Shrinking Airline Seat’

FAA blasted for saying leg room is not a problem

- AVI SELK

If you’re convinced your plane seat gets smaller with each vacation, that your cramped knees and crushed hips are not just a function of your expanding girth, that you’re being gradually and intentiona­lly squished bit-by-bit like a slowly boiled frog as airlines cram ever more chairs into their fuselages at the expense of the people between them, you can feel vindicated.

A U.S. federal court agrees that this is indeed happening, and may be a problem or even a danger to life and pretzel limb.

In a fiery ruling on Friday, an appeals court judge in Washington ordered the Federal Aviation Administra­tion to look into it what she called “the Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat.”

Judge Patricia Millett upbraided the FAA for “vacuous” and “vaporous” evidence that the agency previously used to argue that diminishin­g leg room was not a problem — or at least not its problem.

It’s no secret that the big carriers have been shrinking seat space. CNN reported earlier this year that American Airlines was preparing to retrofit its fleet of Boeing 737 Max jets with less room for economy flyers, for example.

United Airlines was reportedly thinking about doing likewise, even as chair-related horror stories scandalize the industry — like the woman who said her arm and leg went numb after she was forced to squeeze her toddler into the seat she already occupied; or the man dragged from an airplane when he refused to yield his few inches of fabric.

Plenty of people have complained about this, of course, from average flyers to members of Congress. In 2015, a large passenger advocacy group called FlyersRigh­ts.org asked the FAA to put a stop to it with a formal petition.

The group assembled reports that the average seat width on an airplane had shrunk at least an inch and a half since the early 2000s.

Meanwhile, it argued, the space between you and whoever is kicking the back of your economycla­ss seat had decreased even more — to as few as 28 inches on some planes.

Airline seats were designed for people no taller than five-foot-10, and in reasonably good shape, FlyersRigh­ts.org argued, noting that “many Americans do not fit into this category.”

Beyond stiff limbs and sore joints, the group argued, all this squishing creates potentiall­y fatal risks — namely blood clots in passengers’ legs, and the possibilit­y that in an emergency they might not be able to quickly evacuate the cramped confines of a modern airplane.

So the group asked the FAA to impose a moratorium, preventing airlines from shrinking seats any more than they already had while the agency prepared its first regulation­s on the issue. The FAA said no. As summarized by the appeals court, the regulatory agency came up with various reasons to stay out of the seat-space wars.

Blood clots were unlikely to develop, the agency argued, pointing to studies. And anyway, they were no more likely in coach than in first-class.

And modern seats are thinner than they used to be, the FAA contended. So they might even be roomier than their ancestor chairs, despite being packed closer together.

As for evacuation­s, the FAA said it had looked into the matter, ran its own tests, and all was well.

The court refused FlyersRigh­t.org’s request that it order the FAA to set seat space rules. It merely ordered the agency to come up with better arguments against the group’s complaints — and not even all of their complaints.

The FAA had “reasonably concluded that matters pertaining exclusivel­y to passenger ‘comfort’ are not within its regulatory wheelhouse,” Judge Millett wrote.

So to the sore, the stiff and the aching: too bad. Not the government’s problem. The court also agreed that blood clots didn’t appear to have anything to do with seat size or spacing. It tossed out the health concerns, too. But when it came to emergency evacuation­s — you know, those things a flight attendant reminds you about before every departure — the court agreed with FlyersRigh­ts.org that the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat might be a problem.

 ?? TED S. WARREN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? In a fiery ruling on Friday, an appeals court judge ordered the Federal Aviation Administra­tion to look into the size of airline seats.
TED S. WARREN, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS In a fiery ruling on Friday, an appeals court judge ordered the Federal Aviation Administra­tion to look into the size of airline seats.

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