If you’ve ever sat with your knees wedged up against the seatback in front of you, you might be wondering which North American carrier is the airline with the most legroom. And the answer depends entirely on an aircraft measurement called “seat pitch.”
Seat pitch, the distance from any point on an airline seat to the corresponding point of the seat in the following row, is the most reliable measure of total front-to-rear seat space—and therefore, legroom. These days, the average economy seat pitch is 30 to 31 inches on the “Big Four” U.S. airlines: American, Delta, Southwest, and United. Passengers get about 28 to 30 inches on low-fare lines, and 32 to 33 inches on just a few carriers. Seat pitch on transatlantic airlines is usually about the same, with the average for transpacific lines being on the higher side.
Related:The Worst Seats on the Plane, and How to Avoid Them
But talking about averages ignores the fact that each big airline operates dozens of different types of planes, often without one standardized seat pitch across its fleet. Newer planes may have different-pitch seats than older ones, and pitch can change when planes are refurbished. Given those uncertainties, we can identify only a few lines on which you can rely on an above-average pitch for any and all flights—and there’s one clear winner for the title of the airline with the most legroom in North America.
Data on seat pitch for a specific aircraft and route can easily be obtained from SmarterTravel’s sister site SeatGuru, an inflight seat-map search engine. To find the airlines with the most legroom, I concentrated on the big, main airlines; mainly because regional jets and turboprops typically have less legroom. (Where SeatGuru lists a range, such as 31-32 inches, the lower value is posted.)
The North American Airline with the Most Legroom
With 34 inches of seat pitch across all its planes, Interjet is the unexpected North American airline with the most legroom. The Mexico-based, low-fare carrier flies from a handful of U.S. and Canadian cities to destinations throughout Mexico, plus a few each in Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Peru. Interjet operates mainly the widely popular Airbus A320s and 321s (it appears to be phasing out its few Sukhoi SU9 Superjets). Interjet knows it stand apart as the airline with the most legroom, too; and claims to forgo about 30 seats on each flight to give its passengers the extra space.
Runners-Up for Airline with the Most Legroom
JetBlue is a strong runner-up, with 32 to 33 inches on all its planes. The entire JetBlue fleet was once the airline with the most legroom, at 34 inches or better—but in recent years JetBlue has been adding more main cabin seats and
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