Hoping for a federal crackdown on airline seat size? Don’t hold your breath

18.02.2024 - 14:31 / thepointsguy.com / Michael Whitaker / Airlines

It's been 18 months since the Federal Aviation Administration invited the public to weigh in on airline seats, inspiring a flood of anecdotes about sore knees, poor circulation and cramped conditions.

But travelers hoping those stories might lead to sweeping regulations forcing airlines to bring more legroom into coach might be waiting awhile.

As lawmakers last week moved a step closer to passing a law that would fund the FAA and chart its course for the coming years, the regulator's chief seemed to signal far-reaching action on seat size is unlikely.

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Many of the 26,000 commenters that weighed in on airline seat dimensions between August and November 2022 missed the mark, FAA administrator Michael Whitaker suggested while providing testimony for the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Aviation on Feb. 6.

"A lot of the comments focused on 'I want more legroom' type comments, versus safety provisions," Whitaker testified. "I think it's important for us to make the distinction between what might be an economic regulation, and what's a safety regulation."

Indeed, the FAA's interest in hearing from travelers in 2022 was about safety — not comfort. In fact, that very request for comments specifically noted its focus on "minimum seat dimensions necessary for safety of air passengers," as it relates to emergency evacuations.

It was part of a larger safety-focused effort the agency has undertaken in recent years to determine whether conditions on board commercial aircraft make the evacuation of every person, within 90 seconds, feasible.

It's a standard the FAA set out to test several years ago through emergency evacuation simulations. But the study's completeness — or lack thereof — has since drawn bipartisan scrutiny.

Lawmakers have criticized past simulations as unrealistic since they omitted factors common on virtually every flight — from the presence of carry-on bags to service animals, young children, older travelers, passengers with disabilities and those who do not speak English as a first language.

Citing those concerns, lawmakers in the House and Senate drew up legislation calling for a more thorough look at evacuation standards, TPG reported in late 2022.

Today, provisions from those bills are largely included in the House's FAA Reauthorization bill approved last summer and in the Senate's version that received committee approval on Feb. 8.

Once fully passed, the FAA could be tasked with taking a deeper look at evacuation standards and key factors that might affect safety, including current aircraft seat dimension and pitch (the latter is the measurement from a fixed point on one seat to the same point