Will social distancing force commercial airlines to create more elbow and leg room for passengers?

I sure hope not.

Since I only fly coach and I am 6 ft 3inches tall, I hope and pray that they do.

What is driving the airlines to jam more seats into less space is price. Customers care about price more than anything else.

If airlines are forced to put fewer seats on each plane, say goodbye to cheap airline seats.

1. I believe that is what the airlines want the public to believe.
2. I also believe that the airline executives who are making that argument are a bunch of greedy lying sacks of ****.


1. Once again, that is the crap that the greedy lying airline executives wants the public to believe.


https://able2know.org/topic/546560-1

That is nonsense.

1. Airlines are a business. They aren't a charity. Like any other business they exist to make money. Calling them or their executives "greedy" is ridiculous. Their goal, the same as yours or mine, is to make more money. The airlines are in a market economy and competition keeps the balance between price and amenities.

2. The airline industry is not very profitable. They don't make very much money compared to other industries.

3. It cost money to run an airline. They have to buy and maintain airplanes, pay for gas. Then their are pilots and flight attendents and baggage handlers and ground crew and so on... all of whom want to be paid for their work.

4. If they give all the passengers more space, that means fewer seats which means less money. They aren't going to run an airline that loses money.

4. Customers keep demanding lower ticket prices. Airlines compete for your business by offering you ticket prices that are near or even below the cost of taking you from point A to point B.

5. Airlines do offer you more space if you are willing to pay more. This is completely fair bigger seats cost them more. Most customers aren't willing to do this.

If you are too cheap to pay a fair price for a bigger airplane seat, than be happy with your cramped seat. If we get rid of cramped seats, the price of airline travel will go up for us all.

I happen to like going to visit family in Florida and coming back for well under $300.

What do you think has happened to the cost of airline tickets in the past 40 years?.

I will admit I already looked up the answer, but go ahead... take a guess?

The reason you are getting less space is because you are paying less for it.

I'm 5'5" and find there's not enough space!

Passengers trying to access the window seat (my usual spot) should not have to squeeze through partially bent over! (I'm not heavyset either)

Airlines crave profits. The more they get, the more they want. Some of this is to please shareholders. Mainly?though it's for the greedy corporate executives.

1. If I don't sit in a aisle seat, I might catch a charley horse or some type of leg crap.

2. Although, the aisle seat is very cramped, the middle and window seats are more cramped.

I Agree.

1. I am just under 6 ft 3inches, which isn't really that tall at all.

2. I am also slender and slim.

I think that they can ffiiciently redesign seating.Maybe seats will be facing each other with a Lexan sheet in between the seat backs . Also plane designs will have a second floor of seats even in smaller sizes. I think overheads will become design items of the past

This is silly. Of course airlines crave profits. Airlines that don't make profits go out of business (and a lot of airlines go out of business). The fact is airlines don't make very high profits, and the cost of airline tickets have gone down 40% over the past 30 years in 2020 dollars.

When airline off customers cheaper seats with less room.. they overwhelming take them. That is why there are cheaper seats with leg room. If you want more leg room, then pay for the seats with more leg room. It isn't that difficult.

You want want ridiculously cheap airplane seats with leg room. I want a pony.

There is an easy solution to this.

Fund airline travel with tax revenue.

That way you could not only have more leg room, you could have full meals, champagne and a foot massage on every flight all for the rock bottom fare you want to pay.

Create more personal space in a recirculating germ capsule? I don't think so.

yeh, here we go, nationalize the airlines and buses. Maybe we can have the "Volksflugen"
I forgot about the air handling systems. Agreed , almost 25% of the times I fly I come back with a cold. Maybe air handling should include a wide ducting system unit with a UV throughout. UV is effective at disinfection without hospital HEPA filters which need careful monitoring.

Stealing an idea from science fiction-- we could put people into an induced coma, and then load them into individual pods, and then revive them when they reach their destination.

That wouldn't increase "leg room" (although people would be comfortably reclined throughout the flight). But, there is no risk of infection when you are inside of a sealed capsule.

yeh, youre right.Planes are flying petri dishes

I am 5'2" and far from being overweight and I find the seats and space too confining. Forget if there is a normal sized person next to me - I get squished because they overflow into my space.

They way airlines seem to operate is they charge per seat depending on what is available at the time. Yes, I think if they made more room and less seats some prices will go up. They will tend to be those sold later; I think if you plan enough ahead of time, you will still get plane seats less but you will need to plan ahead of time.

It seems to rely alot of demand as a result. For example look now - you can get a ticket for a song. Now granted these are unusual times - but again consider this - in New England in normal times - you try to get a plane ticket to Florida during the public school spring break? And then compare it to a couple of weeks before or after this break-- completely different price.

Like most businesses - prices fluctuate depending on the demand.

When I booked my daughter's flight for her spring break to come home - I asked her if she could miss her first day of classes going back to school - she said yes - I saved a couple of hundred dollars doing this. Certainly was because of the demand for seats on that Sunday vs the Monday