The Senate Just Made an Official Ruling on In-Flight Legroom

Tall folks everywhere now holding their breath, knees

October 4, 2018 9:00 am

Spiritually, I’m a window seat guy. I like downloading some thoughtful tunes from Spotify, staring out at wisps of stratus and cumulonimbus and pretending I’m in a music video. But I’m also 6’3” and pragmatic. So unless I want my knees smushed against a kangaroo pocket full of Skymalls for four hours, it’s the aisle seat life for me. 

Which is why I’m buoyed by some news coming out of the Senate. Legislators just voted 93-6 (talk about bipartisan support!) to extend funding to the Federal Aviation Administration; outlined in that bill is a timetable of one year for the FAA to set a minimum requirement on the width of and space between seats.

Is there any guarantee the FAA won’t side with the cramped camp? Not especially. And the cramped camp does exist — check these perverse, straight-backed seats from Aviointeriors, which propose a draconian 23” between seats. For now, though, the lowest amount of legroom hovers around 29-30” between seats. The FAA can either stop the trend in its tracks, or (we desperately hope) possibly juice up the standard by a few inches.

Don’t screw this up, FAA. I want to book window seats in 2019.

h/t Washington Post

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