A Canadian low-cost airline is already experimenting with ultra-narrow seats for its passengers

“Basically, it’s inhumane to make someone travel like that.” The words are from Amanda Schmidt, an ordinary citizen living (or surviving) another day in the experience of flying. Their complaints could have gone unnoticed, they could have fallen on deaf ears. But he uploaded a video to TikTok. The video went viral and now an airline has had to back down. The video. A man, a woman and a daughter recording. “It should be illegal.” “What happens in case of an accident?” “I’m getting claustrophobic just watching this.” “Don’t worry, they haven’t made you pay to recline the seat yet.” These are comments that accompany the video uploaded by Schmidt to TikTok and one of them points in the right direction as we will see later. In the video you can see two elderly people with serious problems traveling comfortably in their seats. Although the feeling is that the video is recorded with the wide angle of the camera, the image itself already produces a certain amount of stress, with the man putting his legs under the front seat. Click on the image to go to the original video “It’s inhuman”. Once the video went viral, the company has had to give explanations. In statements by the author to C.B.S. He argued a truism that WestJet, the Canadian company on which the people in the video travel, seems to have forgotten: “if they are selling a seat for a human, a human should be able to enter.” The video records what WestJet called “densified seating” (something like “densified” seats in a literal translation into Spanish). The company has tried to increase the number of seats on its planes by reducing legroom and front seatback. Now they confirm that they will reverse what they have called “ultra slim line” seats. “It’s in our DNA”. That is the response from Alexis von Hoensbroech, CEO of the company, who assured that it is essential for them to test new products in a statement made public by the company. These products were, in this case, increasing the seats available in the cabin at the expense of greater passenger comfort. WestJet has assured that it had a program open to reconfigure its cabins and increase the number of passengers but that the final implementation was pending the rejection or support it received from passengers. They assure that in December the possibility of canceling the project was already studied and that with the feedback received, the final decision was going to be made in mid-February. Now they confirm that they will return to the initial configuration. Recliners. Among the comments on the video, one of the TikTok users pointed out that WestJet still “did not charge for reclining the seat.” The mention was not accidental and this possibility had been talked about for a few months. In October We learned the company had a plan: If you want a reclining seat, pay more. To announce this measure, the company noted that it had created a new class of ticket called “extended comfort”, a category immediately above the basic fare that would allow the seat to be reclined. Passengers who did not opt ​​for it or one of the premium services would travel the entire time with their backs completely straight. The decision raised eyebrows among users and experts such as John Gradek, professor of aeronautical management at McGill University in Montreal, who pointed out CBC that “the imagination of airline marketing managers never ceases to amaze me,” making it clear that the measure was nothing more than a new attempt to raise more money. More and more passengers. For years, the only certainty is that low-cost airlines have been working to put more passengers on their planes. In his usual controversial tone, Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, He claimed he could deploy planes to travel standing up in a week. And if it was profitable They would not hesitate to find a way to achieve it. Beyond O’Leary’s bravado, the truth is that there are companies that have been working on solutions that aim for this very thing for years, presenting at aeronautical fairs “seats” to travel completely vertical and barely supported on a kind of stools. An idea that fortunately has not finished curdling very good reviews they have received from the airlines low cost. Photo | Dillon Wolf and Kiya Golara In Xataka | Ryanair and the rest of the low-cost airlines have been charging for your carry-on suitcase for years. The European Union is tired of it

The US has decided that the Gulf of Mexico is called the “Gulf of America.” Canada has avenged the “Canadian coffee”

In a stage of tensions between countries, everything is political. To coffee. The Donald Trump’s arrival at the White House To fulfill his second term he is being a tsunami. He has put The chips industry abovehas arrived with Tariffs under your arm For Mexico and Canada, it has the Celectric eight at the point of sightas well as renewable energiesand plan to be harder with China. These actions, among others, have aroused a feeling of Boicot to American productsand it is so deep that neither coffee is fought. But not a brand or something, but an elaboration: Canada wants to steal American coffee. And Mexico also points. The American is not American. The history of American coffee is most curious. We have seen this preparation dozens of times in cinema and television. Also in coffee shops in half the world to discover that it is a cuffed coffee (in broad strokes, it has its “art” to know the proportions) and we might think that it is an American ‘invention’. But no: it turns out that it is European. Italian, to be more exact. In the United States they have the habit of filling the cup to the top with coffee alone. Filter coffee is very rooted in the country, but in the Europe of the Second World Warcoffee drank differently. It seems that, during the campaign in Italy, Americans who wanted coffee to enjoy the drink or Stay alert They couldn’t stand the espresso Italian (the roasted grains of more do not help) and the baristas prepared A combination of your palate taste: a espresso to which they added hot water to reduce it. Coffee voltage. That combination was baptized as ‘American’ and, in the end, the participation of Americans in their creation was simply that the most intense coffee was not for their taste. But well, it is still a preparation that is really settled, but as we say, to a scrambled river, everything is political and, in Canada, the ‘American’ is no longer so well seen. Recently, and due to political tensions between both countriessome coffee shops have made the decision to change the name ‘American’ for ‘Canadiano’. The elaboration is the same and, in summary accounts, among the American soldiers who fought in Italy there were also Canadians, so they will estimate that they have the same right to keep coffee. Marketing or rebellion? But it is not so much for ‘cultural’ appropriation, for defining it in some way, as to use it. Against what? Because against those tariffs driven by Trump (which are running with a Canadian response, on the other hand). It was the Kicking Horse Coffee cafeteria the first that started this movement that has penetrated between the press specialized in coffee and that has reached media such as CBC News. But, at the same time that there are those who see in this a way to reaffirm the Canadian identity, there are also critics that estimate that it is an orchestrated marketing strategy to sell more coffee among those who have that patriotic fire. And yes, Kicking Horse Coffee has been calling ‘Canadian’ for 16 years to elaboration, but as they explain In their networksnow they make it official and seek that the rest of Canadian coffee shops do the same. Some He has already taken the witness. “For 16 years, Kicking Horse Coffee has been called Canadiano to the Americans. Now, we make this official and ask the coffee shops throughout the country to join. Call it ‘Canadiano’” Mexico wonders things. In whatever, the idea has reached a Mexico that will be used to the change of name of the Gulf of Mexico for that of Gulf of America (America not for the continent, but for that American idea that they are America). In the Latin American country there are already those who are exploring The idea of ​​renowing American coffee as ‘Mexican coffee’ or ‘coffee of pot’. Now, Mexico already has a ‘pot of pot’. It is a typical way of preparing coffee in the country that consists of preparing it in a clay pot as if it were an infusion. It is more typical in rural areas than in large cities, but the issue is not so much the name and … politics. Boycott. We will see if it covers that campaign to replace the American with the Canadian (who, to propose, each country could now put the name he wants), but what is evident is that Trump’s arrival is causing movements worldwide. We have already commented that in Europe and Canada there are movements that ask for the boycott To American products, in networks there are lists European software and hardware to stop depending on the American and have even seen Virulent reactions to products like Tesla cars. Next to cars burning, the Canadian looks like a joke. In Xataka | The intricate technology behind a coffee capsule: how Nespresso has tried to create an “ecosystem” to Apple

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.