The Senate’s top Democrat says the Federal Aviation Administration isn’t moving fast enough to roll out a plan to stop airlines from shrinking passengers’ seats.
Sen. Charles Schumer says federal officials should be doing more to comply with a law to establish minimum seat size standards for airplanes.
The law, part of a reauthorization bill passed in September, requires the FAA to set the seat-size guidelines. It gives the FAA a year to tackle shrinking seats and give an opportunity for the public to weigh in.
But the New York Democrat says the FAA must move faster. He says the agency hasn’t established a plan to “rein in” shrinking seats. The FAA said it “is working to address the provision in the reauthorization bill.”
(AP)
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One Response
Is that a job for the FAA? Airlines have been deregulated, meaning ones that don’t make a profit disappear and new ones take their place. If consumers refused to go on airlines with tiny seats, those airlines would lose revenue (and note that their costs are largely fixed, it costs them almost as much to fly an empty plane as a full one), and would be filing for bankruptcy. If there is consumer demand for bigger seats, airlines will offer them. At present most airlines offer bigger seats and most consumer prefer to fly in less expensive cheap seats. One could require bigger seats, and the result would be higher fares and many consumers would switch to less expensive means of transit.