Airlines' sardine seating shows disregard for passengers By Christopher Elliott Originally published June 12, 2003 JUST AS the busy summer travel season took off this month, American Airlines announced it would scrap its roomier economy-class seats on nearly a quarter of its flights serving leisure and vacation markets. Midwest Airlines also said it would rip out its spacious seats on its new "saver" service and replace them with narrower ones. Both airlines are playing catch-up to the competition, which seems intent on squeezing the most passengers into the least amount of space. Compressing more travelers into a tiny aircraft cabin may lift the airline industry's profits in the short term, but it's a dangerous mistake with long-term implications. Somewhere between the 34 inches of space that's widely regarded as ample legroom and the 30 inches we are being wedged into this summer, there is an invisible line that separates order and anarchy, dignity from degradation - even life from death. Airlines shouldn't be too eager to cross it. There's a direct link between a deficit of seat space and the decline of civilized behavior on a plane. As seat-room gradually shrank on many airlines after the airline industry was deregulated in the 1970s, aircraft interiors devolved into a lawless place. Passengers attacked flight attendants with broken bottles. They got into fist fights with each other. The shock of 9/11 offered a temporary reprieve, but as planes begin filling up again, what's to stop the unruly behavior called "air rage" from continuing? Losing legroom is humiliating, too. Every day, thousands of passengers who are too tall or too wide to fit the narrow confines of economy-class seating leave the plane exhausted and irritated, vowing never to darken the door of a jetway again. Their disenchantment with air travel won't just neutralize the added revenues the airlines would pocket from installing new seats to economy class; it may also translate into financial losses for airlines desperately trying to recover from the three worst years in the history of commercial aviation. Cutting legroom also ignores the fact that sitting in a cramped airline seat appears to increase the risk of developing a deadly blood clot. Deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is also known as economy-class syndrome, has claimed the lives of at least 40 air travelers. And it's not just older passengers with circulatory problems who are affected. A rugby player recently sued British Airways over a blood clot he said he sustained on a flight to Australia. A recent study also found that pregnant women and those taking contraceptive pills are at the highest risk of developing DVT on long flights. By keeping passengers packed in like sardines, the number of DVT cases is bound to increase. Airlines are in denial about the dangers of not offering enough legroom. They insist the link between sitting in substandard-size seats and DVT is unproved. In fact, they say, people want less legroom because it leads to lower fares. And they're just giving us what we want. But if they cared so much about meeting their customers' needs, then what happened to the friendly service? The free airline food? The obvious answer is that they don't care about anything other than generating quick profits for themselves. It's the only explanation for subjecting their customers to more discomfort, but it flies in the face of reason for anyone who isn't suffering from the same myopic outlook as the airline industry. Why would any airline reduce the amount of legroom when its goal is to attract - and keep - passengers? Wouldn't it make more sense to go out of your way to make the travel experience more enjoyable? Don't look to the government for relief. It doesn't seem to care if we're crammed into the cabin like trash in a compactor, either. Oddly, there are more rules relating to the comfort of live animals - very particular regulations about ventilation, ambient temperature, food and water, etc. - than for people. In many ways, you're better off as a dog in the plane's cargo hold. For people, the government mandates only that exit-row seats must have enough legroom so that passengers can leave a plane during an emergency, and those few seats are among the most coveted on any plane. Maybe it's time for our government to say enough is enough. Take away the service, the snacks and the amenities. But this summer, leave us with a little legroom. *************************************************** The owner of Roger's Trinbago Site/TnTisland.com Roj (Roger James) escape email mailto:ejames@xxxxxxxxx Trinbago site: www.tntisland.com Carib Brass Ctn site www.tntisland.com/caribbeanbrassconnection/ Steel Expressions www.mts.net/~ejames/se/ Mas Site: www.tntisland.com/tntrecords/mas2003/ Site of the Week: http://www.carib-link.net/naparima/naps.html TnT Webdirectory: http://search.co.tt *********************************************************