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The size of airline seats was the main topic of TravelPulse founder and CEO Mark Murphy's appearance on Fox Business News' "Money with Melissa Francis" today. The occasion was Southwest Airlines' announcement that their new economy seats will be seven-tenths of an inch bigger than their predecessors, the widest on any Boeing 737, Southwest said.
Shrinking airline seats are still an issue, one that the federal government is looking into from a safety standpoint. And while Murphy and Fox legal analyst Lis Wiehl agreed that cramped conditions on flights were contributing to air rage, they differed on whether this would become a major legal issue for airlines.
Wiehl asserted there would be accusations of negligence against air carriers, and that lawsuits were inevitable, but Murphy put the onus on the passengers for buying the tickets and filling the planes, not the airlines for cramming them into the aircraft.
"It's called capitalism," Murphy said, pointing to the idea that eventually, taller passengers and others who do not fit the seats will need to upgrade and buy first- or business-class seats.
Watch the full segment below:
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