You only have a few more days to let the Federal Aviation Administration hear your thoughts about the size of seats on airplanes.
Over the summer, the agency announced it was considering establishing minimum seat dimensions for airplanes that operate in the U.S. and opened a public comment forum to solicit feedback. The comment period will close on Tuesday.
Sean Kollmorgen hopes the agency requires airlines to make space on board more generous. Kollmorgen works as a restaurant server in Seattle and told USA TODAY that he generally avoids flying now because it is so uncomfortable.
He’s 6’5″ tall and injured his knee about a decade ago.
Are airplane seats too small?
“Since my knee injury, the couple of times I have flown, it affected me for more than a week,” he said. “I have to give myself two weeks for more attention to stretching … almost rehabilitation.”
Kollmorgen added that he can’t even take advantage of exit row seating on family trips anymore because he has a toddler who’s prohibited from sitting in an exit row.
Why is the FAA considering minimum airplane seat sizes?
Congress required the agency to consider establishing minimum standards for airplane seat size as part of its 2018 reauthorization of the agency. However, that requirement is essentially unenforceable because ignoring it came with no official penalties.
The agency has taken some steps to address the mandate though. Beyond soliciting public feedback, it also conducted limited live evacuation testing in 2019.
Read more here.
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