They are not your imaginations, the seat of airplanes is increasingly uncomfortable. He began to shrink in 1978 and since then he has not stopped

The scene It is familiar For any passenger of a commercial flight in “tourist” class: backpack between the legs, knees embedded against the frontal back and a failed attempt to reach the floor of the cabin without hitting the forehead. What was previously an experience of discovery or luxury has degenerated, for the majority, in An uncomfortable struggle for the most elementary physical space.

It happens that this transformation is not fortuitous, and began in the United States.

The free market. Before 1978, airlines in the United States functioned as regulated public services. Basic rates, routes and standards (including the space between seats and customer treatment) were supervised by the federal government. The tickets were more expensive than today, but included services such as billed luggage, food and seats with dimensions Chords to the human body half.

The problem? That the frame changed drastically with THE AIR AUTLINE ACTlegislation that opened the sector to the competition on behalf of the free market. The promise was that The rates would fall and the service would improve. In practice, after a brief explosion of new companies, the market was rapidly consolidated to the Current oligopoly: four airlines (American, Delta, United and Southwest) They control 80 % of the US market.

In that new competitive environment, operational efficiency was imposed as an absolute priority, and the reduction of passenger space became one of the most effective tools for Increase margins Without raising prices.

My seat diminishes. Evolution has been progressive but constant. In the eighties, traditional airlines offered an average of 90 cm space between seats (the called pitch), while today an average of 80 cm is reached in regular airlines, and only 70 cm in low-cost companies such as Spirit or Wizz Air. By the way, the seat width has also fallen around 5 cm.

This reduction has reached a critical point: studies They point out that more than half of the passengers already They do not fit comfortably In standard seats. The effect is especially dramatic for overweight people, the elderly or those who travel with young children, groups that have also been Excluded from the tests Evacuation officers that FAA has used to justify the current regulations.

The reduction in Europe. In Europe, the “to the worst” change for passengers, that is, the progressive loss of space, services and comfort on board, began a little later, in the 1990s, although its regulatory trigger is located a few years earlier, with the European air liberalization which developed in three phases between 1987 and 1997.

The clearest inflection point was the call Third Liberalization Package (1992-1997), which culminated in the creation of the Unique European skyallowing any EU airline to operate freely within the community space without restrictions on routes or rates. From there, several effects were triggered, mainly: the massive entry of Low-Cost airlines (Ryanair, Easyjet or Wozz), standardization down and the indirect deregulation (The EU maintained certain standards, but did not impose minimum seat dimensions).

We are bigger. Over the years the problem has been aggravated by a purely “natural” issue. The reduction of space coincides with a demographic transformation and, above all, physiological and very human: our body has evolved “more”. A fact: According to the CDCsince the 1990s the average weight of American adults has increased In more than 7 kg. Today’s women weigh the same as the men of three decades ago, and although height growth has stabilized, body size has increased.

Despite this, the dimensions of air furniture have not only grown up, but They have diminishedchallenging the tendency of other sectors such as car or entertainment, where the seats have adapted to the new size of the public. In the words of Flyersrights, Paul Hudson, The airlines “They have gone in the opposite direction to the human body.”

The business of making. In the background, the Progressive compression of space responds to A clear logic: Sell more tickets by plane and segment the offer to the maximum. Basic tickets are announced with prices artificially lowbut once in the purchase process, passengers are forced To pay supplements For additional space under labels such as “Economy Plus” or “Comfort”.

This has created the closest to a system of Aerial casteswhere a minority of frequent or business travelers accesses acceptable conditions, while the rest must choose between supporting claustrophobic conditions or paying more for something that was previously standard. According to William McGeeexpert in economic freedoms, this logic generates “A kind of torture against a moderately human class.” This duality not only affects comfort, but it raises ethical questions on air service equity.

Health risks. He problem transcends The scope of comfort. Prolonged immobility in small spaces (especially in long -term flights) increases risk of deep venous thrombosis, a condition that can lead to potentially fatal pulmonary embolisms. The CDC recommends moving Every two or three hoursbut this is impracticable in flights with turbulence or in overalls.

In addition, overcrowding seriously complicates the possibility Evacuate a plane In 90 seconds, the limit that FAA demands. Tests carried out by the agency concluded that the seat size It does not influence significantly, but experts who observed the experiment point multiple deficiencies: It was carried out in a parking lot, not in a real aircraft, and children, adults and people with disabilities were excluded. In addition, the test group was composed of just 60 people, well below the real capacity of a commercial flight.

How to survive. Before institutional inaction, responsibility falls, of course, In passengers. Experts recommend (if the budget allows) to acquire seats with more space for long flights. Some travelers even acquire two contiguous seats (although be careful, because airlines can reassign them without prior notice).

It is also suggested, the time, get up and walk Every time the opportunity arises, and, in high risk cases, Take anticoagulants Light under medical supervision. These strategies are mere palliative in a system that has prioritized economic efficiency on the health and dignity of the passenger.

An expanding legacy. The truth is that, far from diminishing, the practice goes more. The reduction in the size of the seats is not a specific anomaly, but a Tangible manifestation of the implanted economic model After 1978. A model that transformed the passenger into a customer, the plane into a product and the flight into a marked yield market.

The benefit margins are maximized at the expense of the vital space. And while the industry continues to defend that security It is your prioritythe seats shrink, the compartments are saturated and the risk increases. What began as a promise of freedom of choice has derived, in many cases, in a literal physical restriction: less space to move, to breathe, and, ultimately, to fly.

Image | Suhyeon Choi/Unspash, Reddit, Pexels

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