Air travel is getting some deservingly bad PR lately. For decades, companies have prioritized profits over safety, and now it’s all coming to a head with planes that are literally falling apart in the air. Over the past two decades, base ticket prices have continued to increase (Covid prices excluded for obvious reasons) and then they hit you with a ton of add-ons like luggage fees, carry-on bags, and even paying for your family to sit together. Plus, the seats in economy class are generally just uncomfortable, unless you want to pay a lot for an upgrade that most of us can’t afford if we’re not traveling alone. It’s just all such a racket.
Diatribe aside, the latest great idea from the airline industry is to get rid of reclining seats for economy passengers. Over the years, seats have gone from reclining 4-inches to only reclining 2-inches. Southwest has already shared their new seating design, set to start in 2025. Why? Because that will make the seats lighter. Lighter seats mean reduced weight on board, which means jet fuel will go further and less money will be needed to spend on maintenance. In short: they can save money while still most likely increasing costs for the consumer.
The controversial debate of reclining your seat on the plane may soon come to an end thanks to airline companies wanting to cut back on costs. With airlines like Southwest debuting a more streamlined seat design for 2025, it’s only a matter of time before reclining seats disappear completely, aviation and travel expert William McGee told Condé Nast Traveler during an interview published on Monday, April 15.
“This trend has been occurring for several years now, and I think it will continue. Lighter seats are what the airlines want, because with the cost of jet fuel they are always looking to reduce weight onboard,” McGee, a senior fellow for aviation and travel at the American Economic Liberties Project, said. He adds that lighter, non-reclining seats require fewer mechanical parts, and thus airline companies also save money when it comes to maintenance.
Certain airlines like Delta, United, American and Southwest have already been cutting back on the number of inches a seat can recline, according to the outlet. Economy seats used to recline back four inches and now the standard is two inches.
Pre-reclined seats are also becoming a trend. In 2019, Spirit Airlines introduced its new cabin interior that featured seats that “pre-recline on every row,” the company said in a press release at the time.
The seats are designed at a slight angle to “allow for a wider range of healthy postures and movements,” and “offer an additional two inches of usable legroom compared to industry-standard flatback seats,” per the release.
McGee pointed out that airlines have been cutting back on other luxuries in the last two decades, from free seat selection to included in-flight meals.
“Consumers have been losing much more than seat recline in economy class,” he said. “It’s just that in this case, losing the ability to recline can be a blessing in disguise for others, because tighter seats have made reclining unfair to fellow passengers.”
Not only would airlines be spending less on maintenance and extra jet fuel costs with non-reclining seats, but they would also avoid the arguments that tend to arise among passengers whenever someone reclines.
A viral video shared on X in November 2023 is an example of the controversial etiquette debate in action. In the clip, a passenger claims the person sitting behind her pushed against her seat “the whole trip” because she reclined.
“I’m allowed to put my seat back,” she repeatedly said in the video.
So, where does everyone stand on reclining seats? I’m of two minds. The first one is that airplanes are uncomfortable enough as it is. I remember when they made the recline just the two-inches and with that change, I now barely notice when the person in front of me reclines. I have definitely noticed that you get less sitting room in general as a result of airlines adding extra rows, though. So if two-inches makes someone else’s flight just a little better, so be it. My second mind is that, well, it can be annoying if you’re in a section with decent reclining seats because of said smaller seating areas. I have never flown on Spirit, so I looked up pre-reclining seats, and it just looked like seats designed with a slight curve? Has anyone flown with those types of seats? Are they a good compromise?
My family and I have started traveling more on Amtrak to go visit family in New York. We had already started driving more, but at least with Amtrak, you can read a book, close your eyes, use the Wifi, etc. It’s about 10 hours for us either way, so flying is the most convenient way to travel. It’s just so dang expensive! Honestly, as someone who used to fly a lot, I’m quite bitter about just how different (worse) air travel has gotten, especially over the last five years. It feels like something about air travel changed after Covid and it hasn’t been for the better. I hope it gets better. In the meantime, we really need to get going with that high-speed railway system.
photos credit: Suhyeon Choi and Hanson Lu on Unsplash and via Instagram