The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
WHY TRAVELERS HATE DELTA’S NEW GATE SEATS
Travelers complain of discomfort; seat-maker says it’s easy to clean.
As Delta Air Lines renovates its gate areas at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, one feature is gaining unexpected attention: Seats that some passengers say are hard and uncomfortable.
The new seats are made of a solid black polyurethane material, making them durable and easy to clean. Some travelers say the collateral damage is a sore behind.
“I was sitting there for like half an hour, and I just kept feeling more and more uncomfortable,” said flier Shelli Godfrey, who also quipped in a tweet: “Did you want to make plane seats more inviting?”
Memphis traveler Craig Smither said he’s a Delta fan but added, “I just don’t get those hard plastic seats.”
Delta didn’t offer comment Tuesday on its decision to replace the old padded blue seats with the new model.
Martin Sharp, regional director for seat-maker Zoeftig, said the new seat material is an injection-molded firm foam with a “slight flexibility” that makes it ergonomic, particularly “when someone sits for 10 minutes and their body heat heats it.”
That’s cold comfort to Smither, who tweeted that “Delta has the most uncomfortable seats at the Atlanta airport,” adding that the airline “should make the senior management use them for desk chairs.”
Traveler Doug Williams called them “the worst chairs on the East Coast.” And Cindy Beresh-Bryant dissed them as “terrible — hard, cold and uncomfortable!”
Sharp said some travelers may be influenced by their sense of “perceived comfort,” or how comfortable a seat appears before you sit in it. He also said “there’s a tradeoff, unfortunately,” between comfort and durability.
Iana Tassada, a vice president at JE Dunn Construction, which is handling the renovations for Delta, said the purpose of a gate area is to handle passengers just before boarding. She said “there’s been a lot of effort” on improving concessions and art in the airport, “so people are enjoying the airport and spending less time in the hold room.”
The new seats do have armrests, which the old ones lacked, as well as more power modules that make USB and plug sockets available at every seat.
Armrests increase the sense of personal space but also make it more difficult to sleep across seats. Zoeftig is in talks with Delta about benches for families and passengers who get delayed overnight, according to Sharp.
Renovation of 85 Delta gates at Hartsfield-Jackson is expected to run through October 2018. The new seats also will appear at some other airports.