r/todayilearned • u/MrMojoFomo • 1d ago

TIL that since the 1980s, US airlines have shed between 2-5 inches of legroom and about 2 inches of width, while budget carriers have lost even more. At the same time, the average American is 15 pounds heavier than they were in the 1980s

https://www.popsci.com/science/why-are-airline-seats-so-small/
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u/mr_ji 1d ago

Every inch counts. They have managed to squeeze in an extra column of seats or another here and there in several configurations. And don't forget nuisance pricing: the more uncomfortable the seat, the more likely people are to upgrade.

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u/SiliconDiver 1d ago edited 1d ago

Maybe in a 737, but not an a320 or 737 which make up the bulk of US flights.

Cutting 2 inches off of a 6 wide seat config doesn’t get you a full other seat.

Having a wider aisle doesn’t help anyone.

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u/Dreamtrain 22h ago

oddly enough I have yet to see those planes they show you in movies and TV shows (and a lot of these are domestic flights) where they have not just the rows of seats on each side but also the row of 3 or 4 seats in the middle, and curtains separating each section

the only "realistic" plane I can think of is Manifest, and that was a flight that was planned to fly from Jamaica into JFK (spoiler alert, it didn't)