‘The flight attendants were so apologetic’: Woman boards WestJet plane. Now she’s calling their new seats ‘unsafe and absurd’
Airplane legroom has been getting smaller for years—but the new seats on WestJet, a Canadian low-cost carrier, have taken things to the extreme.
In a video with over 583,000 views, TikTok user Lindsay May Noble (@lindsaymayfm) shows a man sitting on a WestJet flight.
“How’s your seat, honey?” Noble asks the man. Panning the camera down, one can see that the man’s knees are pressing into the seat in front of him.
“Terrible,” he responds. “I couldn’t be any more further back, and I’m hitting.”
“And the seats don’t recline,” Noble adds.
In the text overlaying the video, Noble writes, “I feel for anyone who is tall… these new WestJet seats are unsafe and absurd.” She states in the caption that flight attendants were “so apologetic about this.” Additionally, she says the attendants encouraged the couple to file a complaint with WestJet.
The TikToker stated in a follow-up video that her primary concern was safety. In her view, if seats like these are allowed to exist, it opens the door to airlines further reducing legroom. This, in her opinion, could compromise safety.
What’s Going On With Airplane Legroom?
In the industry, legroom is officially known as “seat pitch.” The new WestJet planes have a pitch of 28 inches, which the airline says was done to be able to add another row of seats to the flight.
While this is certainly a tight fight, it’s not the smallest in the industry. Aerospace Global News notes that other airlines, such as Spirit and Frontier, have a standard seat pitch of about 28 inches. Not only that, but some airlines have seats with smaller pitches, with the smallest being the first row on Jetstar’s A321neo LR. These seats have a pitch of just 23.9 inches.
Still, some seats with this slim pitch feel different from others. Seat design can be altered to make better use of the limited space. For example, the backsides of seats can be formed to allow for additional space for flyers’ knees.
No matter how well the space is used, it’s a fact that airline seats are getting smaller, even as passengers get bigger. According to Popular Science, since the 1980s, American, Delta, Southwest, and United have each reduced legroom by roughly 2 to 5 inches and seat width by about 2 inches.
Seats are so small now that, per passenger rights organization FlyersRights, less than half of American passengers can be said to reasonably fit in economy seats.
Is This Legal?
Some, like Noble, have speculated that this minuscule pitch poses safety concerns. As such, they question whether arrangements like the one shown in the video are even legal.
The answer is, flatly, yes. Simply put, there’s not a lot of evidence to suggest that tight seat pitch impedes evacuation. There are also some that say that it does not, though the latter studies have faced criticism.
As noted by Aerospace Global News, airlines must only demonstrate that their aircraft can be safely evacuated within 90 seconds. If they can, the aircraft is determined to be safe to fly, no matter how the seats are arranged or how small the pitch is.
Both Passengers And Pilots Are Unhappy
In 2022, the Federal Aviation Administration opened a public comment about seat sizes. The response was overwhelmingly negative. Throughout the 26,000 comments received, passengers complained about modern airplane seats. Some identified them as “cramped”; others declared they were “unsafe.”
For their part, the union representing WestJet pilots released a statement to the CBC noting their displeasure with the new seating arrangement.
“While the 28-inch seat pitch reconfiguration of many seats on 22 of our nearly 200-plane fleet is Transport Canada-approved, pilots recognize it reduces the superior safety margins of previous layouts due to cramping — legality ensures compliance, but not always optimal outcomes,” said Captain Jacob Astin, chair of the WestJet Master Executive Council.
WestJet has already paused the rollout of some of its new seating plans after installing them in half its aircraft.
In response to similar videos and complaints, WestJet released a statement. “We are closely monitoring guest and employee feedback to assess the product’s performance, comfort and suitability, while ensuring our unwavering commitment to safety remains at the forefront of every decision we make.”
@lindsaymayfm The flight attendants we're so apologetic about this. They told us to submit a complaint and tell @WestJet ♬ original sound – Lindsay May Noble
Commenters Are Furious
In the comments section, users expressed their frustration with this seat layout and other, similar narrow seating arrangements.
“I’m 6’6..can I now no longer fly with westjet? they already had no leg room. this is not cool,” wrote a user.
“As a 6′ 1 woman, seating was bad before. I’d pay for emergency exit seats (when available!) just for some extra room,” echoed another. “This is absolutely unacceptable!”
“We keep paying more and more and getting less and less,” stated a third. “How can planes be part of shrinkflation?!”
The Mary Sue reached out to WestJet via email and Noble via TikTok and Instagram direct message.
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