In Europe or the USA, almost everything is regulated down to the last detail. But despite umpteen standards and DIN sizes, there is one regulation that does not exist: the minimum size of flight seats. Instead, the global safety rule applies that an aircraft must be evacuated within 90 seconds in an emergency. As long as this is guaranteed, airlines and aircraft manufacturers can determine the dimensions of the seat.
In the post-war years this was not a problem. But as early as the 1960s, the economic miracle ensured that waist sizes increased. Since then, the rich part of the world that likes to travel a lot has become more important every year.
Figures from the US health authority CDC show that between 1960 and 2002 both men and women gained an average of almost eleven kilos. Worse still is the proportion of obese, i.e. those with a body mass index of 30 or more. 33 out of 100 adult Americans are considered to be severely overweight.
According to the German Society for Nutrition, seven out of ten men and five out of ten women in Germany weigh too many kilos. 23 percent of men and 24 percent of women are considered obese.
The industry has adapted to this. Clothing and shoe sizes in particular are growing with the population. The dimensions of the seats on board aircraft, on the other hand, are usually not adjusted.
On the contrary: your size has decreased. The US passenger association Flyersrights writes that modern seats are designed for people up to a height of 1.79 meters and a weight of less than 81.65 kilos. The standards date from the early 1960s.
The result: If you weigh more than 100 kilos, you will swell over the armrests in Economy Class. According to Flyersrights, the average seat pitch has been reduced from 88.90 to 78.74 centimetres. A backrest is only a little over 40 centimeters wide instead of 46 centimeters.
And of course it can always be tighter. The comparison on Seatguru.com shows that in Europe not only Easyjet, but also British Airways and Condor are reducing seat pitches to less than 74 centimetres, preferably on short-haul routes. Other airlines such as Lufthansa, Eurowings or Ryanair offer at least 76.2 centimeters of seat pitch – that’s more than Easyjet or Condor, but is still below the average value of 78.74 centimeters determined by Flyersright.
Flyersrights criticizes the US aviation authority FAA because it has been delaying the issue of minimum size for flight seats for years. In 2018, Congress asked the authority to submit a corresponding draft law.
According to the consumer association, however, two important aspects are overlooked: On the one hand, it is about the comfort and health of overweight people – they face an increased risk of thrombosis if they have to remain wedged in the narrow rows of seats for hours.
On the other hand, there is the general question of flight safety in view of the increasing overweight population. If bulky passengers can no longer get out of their shrunken seats quickly enough in an emergency and become an obstacle in the narrow space on board, then flight safety is no longer guaranteed.
“The FAA defines safety too narrowly, namely only for emergencies. They forget that an emergency evacuation can also be affected by the size of the seats,” criticizes Flightrights chairman Paul Hudson. And: “Health and comfort issues are completely excluded.”
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