The ongoing misery of air travellers sees no end in sight, or can even get worse, as the US Senate failed to pass legislation that would have required minimum space standards for airline passengers.
As reported by BBC, in a 42-54 vote the Senate rejected the measure introduced by Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to prohibit airlines from further reducing the "size, width, padding and pitch" of seats, and other space allocated for fliers in commercial airplanes. In order to cut costs, airlines in recent years have reduced space for their passengers including seat size and legroom among others. These increasingly cramped quarters have generated complaints from travellers and even caused flights to be disrupted due to disputes among passengers who are now charged if they want more legroom.
Airline companies, on the other hand, opposed the bill saying it attempted to "re-regulate" the industry that has been deregulated since 1978, according to CBS News.
The proposal of Schumer, who complained that passengers are packed "like sardines," was an amendment to a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization the Senate is considering that would have also required airlines to prominently display on their websites how much space is allocated for each passenger, reports Washington Post.
The debate on total passenger space, in general, and seat size, in particular, has heavy personal implications to the 1.7 Americans who fly within the United States daily as they have gotten bigger. Thirty five percent of the US population is obese, almost 79 million of them, and is projected to top 50 percent by 2030.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention says that the average weight of a woman these days is 166 pounds, same as her male counterpart in the 1960s who now weighs 196 pounds.
Airlines provide seat belts about 40 inches long and flight attendants are required by FAA to "discreetly offer" 24-inch extenders to those whose wide girth neccesitates them. In contrast, airplane seats have become smaller since the 1970s when it was 18 inches wide. Now it is one-and-half inches smaller as the distance between rows in the economy section has shrunk from a yard in the old days to only about 31 inches now.
Senator Schumer lamented, "Flying is not pleasant anymore. You're crammed in. I'm not that tall. I'm a little under 6-foot-1, and what I do when I fly is I take out the magazine and the airsickness bag and the little folder that tells you where the exits are to gain a 16th-of-an-inch more legroom, so my knees don't bang into the seat in front of me."
The issue of passenger space has health and safety impact as well according to Paul Hudson, President of FlyersRight.org who said, "It is a safety concern, particularly with evacuation that hasn't really been tested for these small spaces. It is a health concern for blood clots. It is a safety concern when people are having disagreements and fight about space." Hudson added that if you crowd more and more people in a constant space bad things happen.
This could be what Schumer meant when he said,"It costs you an arm and a leg just to have room for your arms and legs," as he tried to convince his colleagues to order the FAA to step up and stop the problem from continuing.
Apparently he failed as all but three Democrats were in favor and all but one Republican voted gainst the bill.
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