One of the leading consumer advocacy groups for airline passengers, FlyersRights.org, is asking the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to speed up the process to increase the size of airline seats, according to Forbes magazine.
Citing concerns over passenger safety and comfort, the group is petitioning the government to establish minimum standards for seat sizes by July of 2023, saying that half of the adult population in the U.S. "can no longer reasonably fit in most airline seats."
FlyersRights said it has been down this path with the FAA before - Congress asked for minimum stands to be put into place by October of 2019, but the pandemic hit four months later and the airlines have not yet adopted any such measures.
The latest petition is 26 pages long and asks that a minimum seat width of 20.1 inches be established, almost four inches wider than today's current average of 16.5 to 18 inches. FlyersRights is also asking for more inches on seat pitch, saying that the increase in size would "allow for a safe evacuation" in the event of an emergency.
"The petition filed by FlyersRights will be considered under the agency's rulemaking procedures," FAA spokesman Tony Molinaro told Forbes.
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