VIDEO: Whitehouse, Langevin, Cicilline Call for “More Reasonably Sized” Airplane Seats
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Congressman Jim Langevin, and Congressman David Cicilline joined Rhode Island Airport Corporation CEO Iftikhar Ahmad at T.F. Green Airport on Monday, to call on the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to "make air travel safer and more comfortable for passengers by setting a reasonable minimum size and pitch for airplane seats."
Whitehouse had advocated for a provision signed into law last fall that directed the FAA to propose a minimum seat width and minimum distance between rows of seats. The FAA must meet the requirement by October of this year, according to the law. The agency has indicated that it will take initial steps to fulfill the requirement by later this year.
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Cicilline said following the press conference he believed "there's no expectation anyone's going to pay any more."
"There's no expectation that [airlines] will charge more, but people have an expectation that when they buy a ticket to know that they're going to get from point A to point B and that it be done safely," he said.
Average seat pitch in coach has narrowed from about 35 inches to 31 inches in recent years, according to the travel website SeatGuru. Seat pitch is as low as 28 inches on some carriers. Average seat width has shrunk from 18 inches to 17 inches or less.
