Photo Courtesy of JetBlue
Shrinking seats is “the No. 1 travel complaint I get from airline customers,” Sen. Schumer said.
By Forum Staff
With the Thanksgiving travel rush just days away, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Sunday demanded that the Federal Aviation Administration immediately begin the process of tackling shrinking seats on airplanes. Schumer wrote the law requiring the FAA to address the issue earlier this summer, but revealed on Sunday that the agency has yet to begin the work now required by law to rein in shrinking airplane seats for millions of travelers.
The seat-size provision was part of the larger FAA Reauthorization Bill that passed this September. The law gives the FAA a year to tackle shrinking seats and provide notice and opportunity for the public to contribute to the process. Schumer on Sunday demanded the FAA get going already because now there is less than a year to get all of this work done—and in the meantime airline seats continue to be a bane for travelers.
Schumer cited a Fortune magazine report that indicated that the average seat pitch has decreased from 35 inches in the 1970s to approximately 31 inches today. Schumer said that he has long worried that without action, more inches would be cut and more passengers crammed like sardines.
Schumer also cited a recent CBS 2 News report in which travel experts and the Transportation Security Administration are predicting the “busiest Thanksgiving season” ever at airports this year. The TSA expects 25 million holiday travelers at airports, up 7 percent from last year. According to the report, “as many as 50,000 people are expected to pass through LaGuardia daily. At John F. Kennedy International Airport, the number doubles to 100,000 each day. And around 70,000 are predicted at Newark Liberty Airport’s security checkpoints.”
“The No. 1 travel complaint I get from airline customers is shrinking seats and—like the seats themselves—the FAA’s timeline to tackle this issue is getting smaller and smaller with each passing day,” the Empire State’s senior senator said. “If the predictions hold true, this Thanksgiving will be amongst the busiest we have ever seen in our New York airports. That means tens of thousands of air travelers being forced to sit in a seat that—not too long ago—was many inches larger. That’s why I wrote the law to combat the sardine-like packing of people and why I am demanding the FAA get to work on the plan to rein in the shrinking once and for all.”
Additionally, Schumer said that the airline revenue-generating tactic of charging for “extra” legroom represents a clear sign that the inch-cutting has gone on far too long. With inches now equating to big dollars that have helped deliver even bigger profits for airlines, Schumer says a minimum standard is both fair and timely. A minimum seat- and pitch-size standard should be made with the input of experts and consumers and based on science, passenger health, and safety, not only the maximum number of people that can be crammed into one plane. That is what the new provision in the FAA Reauthorization Bill will accomplish once the work actually begins, the senator added.
