More and more airlines are moving to slim seating as they replace older aircraft, and order new planes.
While airline executives repeat over and over that the new seats create more space for passengers -- a slimmer seat means less space taken up by padding, they say -- the reality for travelers is looking less and less comfortable. And it's now reached a point that the Department of Transportation is concerned.
A government advisory committee is looking into whether a lack of legroom could also be dangerous for passengers' health and safety.
On Tuesday, a flight attendants' union testified at a committee hearing that the reduction in personal space has led to more air rage, with many of the incidents going unreported.
The lack of space could also lead to problems with evacuations, witnesses said, noting that the government runs safety tests with 31 inches between rows when some airlines today now have just 28 inches.
But you'd never know the seats could cause problems by how airline and aircraft executives describe them.
"The new aircraft seats are the widest economy seats available in the single-aisle 737 market, and offer a unique design that gives our customers what they asked for: more space," Bob Jordan, Southwest's executive vice president and chief commercial officer, said in a release Tuesday about the airline's choice of new seats, which will be introduced in 2016.
Meet our sweet new seat! http://t.co/gsQTm0gdoC #SouthwestHeart— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) April 14, 2015
United's chief revenue officer said in January that slim seating is essentially creating 14 new planes for the airline, by increasing the number of passengers existing aircraft can handle.
Delta, American and other airlines have also introduced slimmer seats, with less padding and less space between seats.
Earlier this year, a Boeing spokesperson told the Wall Street Journal that the seats are “giving passengers more leg room than the previous generation of seat designs."
Even though many passengers have said in surveys that they do not like slim seats, the airlines are forging ahead.
The Federal Aviation Administration runs various tests including how fast passengers can evacuate a plane and how fast they can put on a life preserver. Before any new jet is allowed to fly, the manufacturer must prove that everybody can evacuate in 90 seconds with half of the exits blocked.
However, Cynthia Corbertt, a human factors researcher with the FAA, testified that the tests are done on planes with a seat pitch of 31 inches.
"We'd like to see more-realistic simulations," Frederick testified.
The advisory committee will eventually make non-binding suggestions to government regulators who will decide on the future of seating.
Additional reporting by the Associated Press