It's not your imagination. Airplane seats are shrinking.


Feeling increasingly cramped during your holiday travel? You're not imagining it. Airlines and aircraft manufacturers have been oh-so-subtly slimming down their planes' seats and facilities to squeeze in more passengers, The Wall Street Journal reports. The average flight now has 142 seats, compared with 137 two years ago, thanks to the installation of skinnier seats, tighter bathrooms, and smaller galleys to cram in more rows. Airbus, which makes planes for American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Lufthansa, and many others, plans to boost the maximum number of passengers allowed on its A320 jets from 180 to 189, and from 220 to 240 on the A321. JetBlue's A320 planes will increase to 162 seats from 150.
A key trick to packing in more people, The Journal notes, is using thinner backrests that give passengers more legroom but less overall seating space. The traditional seat afforded 32 total inches of space with 22 inches of legroom, while a typical new design gives just 30 inches of total space but 24 inches of legroom. While you can stretch your feet a bit more, there's less distance between your nose and the head of the guy in front of you. Psychologists say it's that lack of eye-level room that makes people feel so squished in.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Kelly Gonsalves is a sex and culture writer exploring love, lust, identity, and feminism. Her work has appeared at Bustle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, and more, and she previously worked as an associate editor for The Week. She's obsessed with badass ladies doing badass things, wellness movements, and very bad rom-coms.
-
Samsung to make Tesla chips in $16.5B deal
Speed Read Tesla has signed a deal to get its next-generation chips from Samsung
-
FCC greenlights $8B Paramount-Skydance merger
Speed Read The Federal Communications Commission will allow Paramount to merge with the Hollywood studio Skydance
-
Tesla reports plummeting profits
Speed Read The company may soon face more problems with the expiration of federal electric vehicle tax credits
-
Dollar faces historic slump as stocks hit new high
Speed Read While stocks have recovered post-Trump tariffs, the dollar has weakened more than 10% this year
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutiny
Speed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress code
speed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirement
speed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement