NOT A JOKING MATTER

Posted on 02/25/2016

US Congress has defeated an amendment addressing shrinking legroom for airline passengers. The amendment proposed by Democrat Steve Cohen (Tennessee) would have required the federal government to determine if a minimum dimension for commercial airline seats was in order. Cohen argued that emergency evacuation regulations do not take into account shrinking seat sizes and reduced pitches.

The debate was treated lightly with representatives making jokes about measuring seats.Republican representative Rodney Davis, (Illinois) who is popular with the airline industry, having received $40,000 in campaign support from them, joked, “Mr. Chairman has a larger seat; do you think the House Administration Committee should study seat sizes here?”Cohen responded, “We’re not in airplanes that are crashing and having 180 people trying to get off at one time to get to a ramp to save their life. This is not about seats here, Mr. Davis. … This is not a funny issue.“The airlines have been deregulated. They’re down to four major carriers and they do what they want to do, because they can. If you don’t live in one of the major cities in this country … you have to take what flight’s available on maybe one airline. … They talk about market conditions? There are no longer market conditions, this is a controlled industry.”Davis said, “I think we got to the root of what this issue is. It’s your issue with the airline industry as a whole rather than this specific study. “I don’t think we should be able to require the FAA to spend taxpayer dollars on what I would consider a redundant study.”The chairman of the committee, Republican representative Bill Shuster (Pennsylvania) urged members to vote against the amendment and every member of his party did, except Rep. Don Young, of Alaska. Air transport PACs are Shuster’s largest source of campaign funding ($92,000 this cycle) and he has the backing of major airlines such as American, Alaskan, Continental, Delta, Hawaiian, Jetblue, and Southwest. In the seventies, the average seat was 45.72 cm (18 inches).  It is now 41.91 cm (16.5 inches).The seat pitch has gone from 88.9 cm (35 inches) to 78.74 cm (31 inches).Cohen said he plans to move the legislation as a stand-alone bill at a later date