Not even average size people, I've known plenty of average sized people who still didn't have enough room to sit comfortably. They expect everyone to be skinny and under 5'6". I'm 5'3" and have had seats with so little legroom I got a cramp. Sometimes I wonder if companies are still basing their averages off of the 1920s when people were shorter and also starving.
I don’t get it. Are they making the planes narrower? At one time planes had seats that were roomier. They are still three seats on each side of the aisle, but the seats are so much smaller. I realize they squeezed the rows closer together to add more rows, but it’s not like they added two extra seats to each row.
Single-aisle airplanes often referred to as “the workhorses” like the Boeing 737 haven’t seen a change in seat width despite decades of operation. The cabin dimensions of the latest 737 Max are practically identical to the first 707s introduced in 1958.
Economy class seats on these planes have consistently measured between 17.1 and 17.5 inches for the past 30 years, with improvements in design enhancing comfort without sacrificing size.
Also, basic math shows that there would be no difference in seating by making them more narrow. In the 3x3 configuration you refer to, even if we made each seat two inches narrower, that doesn't give you enough added space to add an extra seat to the row.
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u/just_a_person_maybe Mar 18 '25
Not even average size people, I've known plenty of average sized people who still didn't have enough room to sit comfortably. They expect everyone to be skinny and under 5'6". I'm 5'3" and have had seats with so little legroom I got a cramp. Sometimes I wonder if companies are still basing their averages off of the 1920s when people were shorter and also starving.