As airlines cram more and more seats onto planes, the size of seats have accordingly grown smaller — and legroom has disappeared before our eyes.
But the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which regulates civil aviation in the United States, may have to set a minimum requirement for aircraft seat width and legroom as part of a five-year extension of aviation rules.
The minimum requirements would mean seats and legroom couldn’t get any smaller — and they could set the trend for aviation globally.
The regulations were part of an FAA funding plan being considered by American Congress this week.
Last year the FAA rejected the idea of setting minimum standards for seat width and legroom but it appears Congress is pushing the aviation authority to go ahead with it, AP reported.
According to Democratic senator Bill Nelson, taking action on the phenomenon of “ever-shrinking seats” was something both chambers of Congress agreed on.
He said: “Relief could soon be on the way for weary airline passengers facing smaller and smaller seats."
Those weren’t the only changes set out in the proposed bill, which Congress had until Sunday to agree on or extend.
It would also stop airlines from kicking passengers off overbooked flights, a practice that made global headlines when a doctor called David Dao was dramatically dragged from a United Airlines plane in April 2017.
It would ban pets from being stowed in the overhead compartment too, which appeared to be in response to another case from this year involving the in-flight death of a family’s beloved french bulldog.
The FAA would also make airlines give refunds to passengers for services not received, such as if their in-flight entertainment system didn’t work, and it would also see pregnant passengers boarded early.
These changes, if they come into effect, would only apply to US airlines, but they could well have a knock-on effect, with British and EU governments following suit, as happened with the laptop ban last year.
While that would all be welcome news to flyers, the bill overlooked a key issue that was also a big gripe for passengers.
The version of the bill announced on the weekend removed a provision to regulate what airlines could charge in fees for items like baggage and seating reservations.
This year, US airlines were expected to fetch about $6.5 billion in such fees by the end of the year.
The provision that was removed would have allowed the US Department of Transport to decide whether extra charges were “unreasonable” or out of line.
His comments came as Italy’s competition watchdog said it was investigating Irish low-cost carrier Ryanair’s controversial new baggage fee structure.
From November Ryanair will stop letting passengers take small suitcases on board for free, and will charge passengers for carrying on bags 10kg and over.
But Antitrust, Italy’s competition authority, said this week hand luggage was “an essential element of transport” so the cost should be included in the price of the ticket.
This article was originally published on News.com.au and has been reproduced with permission.
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