Passenger advocate points to risks of shrinking airline seats
Posted May 31, 2016 7:26 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – If only you could pack a little more leg room in your carry-on.
As airline seat space continues to shrink, an advocate for passenger rights is pointing to the risks associated with cramped cabins, suggesting the case of a 64-year-old man from Victoria is a prime example.
The 6’2″ man is reportedly suffering from deep vein thrombosis after a 10-hour flight from South America, during which turbulence kept passengers mostly confined to their seats.
The World Health Organization says passengers kept cramped in seats for more than four hours are at risk for the painful and potentially dangerous condition caused by blood clots forming in the legs and then migrating to the heart and lungs.
“Just over the past decade or two, airline leg space has shrunk 10 centimetres, or four inches,” says Gabor Lukacs, an airline passenger advocate.
“I’ve been advocating for minimum seat size requirements but unfortunately, there are none. And Transport Canada just stated it is not contemplating imposing such regulations. In my view, that’s quite a problem,” he tells NEWS 1130.
“They should be investigating this question and there should be some minimum of how close the rows of seats can be to each other in a way that even someone who is only a bit taller than average can still be seated in a reasonable way without putting his or her health at risk.”
Lukacs is also concerned about whether older aircraft can be evacuated as quickly, as companies cram more seats into existing space.
“They have more seats than the aircraft was designed for 20 or 30 years ago with a fixed amount of emergency exits,” he says.
“I’m not a safety expert, but I’d like to see what kind of testing has been conducted with the [smaller sized seat space] with those aircraft. I haven’t seen evidence that this has been properly tested.”
Transport Canada does regulate the maximum number of seats allowed on aircraft.
Major airlines have repeatedly insisted there is no conclusive medical evidence linking deep vein thrombosis with flying.
