Coach class leg room already leaves something to be missed, but now, some airlines have decided to squeeze us in even further cramping up leg room space to add in more seats. Packing more passengers means more revenue for airlines, but it also means an even more uncomfortable travel experience for passengers.
Many low costs carriers have started to change their seating arrangements in order to afford more seats on their aircrafts.
According to The Boston Globe Southwest Airlines has cut off about an inch of seat space between passengers seats as of late. This was after Southwest's new seats that included thinner cushions and seatbacks which allowed them to add six additional seats in its planes.
Southwest claims that their seats are the appropriate size and shape, regardless of the loss of inches. A spokesperson from Southwest Airlines said to CNN, "Our seating surfaces are contemporarily appropriate."
The new seats will save about $10 million in yearly fuel costs. Southwest's spokesperson added to CNN that it is an "environmental win and a revenue positive move on the extra seats."
WestJet which is a low-cost carrier which is also Canada's second biggest airline, has reduced legroom in some coach seats so business and first class seats could have more leg room.
Jetblue has also decreased about one inch of legroom fro its Embraer E190 jets for their higher-class section that has extra legroom and accompanied higher fares.
Jeff Luedeke, a vice president at airline seat manufacturer TIMCO Aerosystems, which makes seats for Allegiant, Japan Airlines, RwandAir, and Spirit Airlines said to CNN, "The seat is a revenue generator. Normally if you look at a 737 or A320 there are three seats on each side. If you wanted maximum comfort you could do two on each side -- and make the seats a lot wider. But with the reduced head count the operational costs don't work out."
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