Why reclining airplane seat is declining

The reclining seat on an airplane can be a thing of convenience or some kind of leg-scrunching torture device depending on your perspective (and sheer luck). But now you may not have much have a choice, with more and more airlines quietly ditching the reclining mechanism

How it works

The recliner works through what seatmakers call kinematics — essentially, moving parts, CNN reports. There’s a mechanism under your seat, wires that connect it to the recline button and a pneumatic canister that returns the seat to an upright position

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Why get rid of them?

This represents costs for airlines though — one, the cost to maintain as is the case with any such mechanism. Two, the more a plane weighs, the more fuel it needs. And the weight of reclining mechanisms adds up. Three, it causes disruptions, leading flight attendants to babysit passengers and mediate their reclining-related squabbles. Four, it saves them space. As the CNN piece points out, “If an airline can save one inch of space per row, that’s 30 inches across the plane, which works out to an entire extra row of seats.”

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How we got so upright

In the late 2000s, low-cost carriers began creating seats that could not recline. Some were even called ‘pre-reclined,’ because they were automatically at a bit of an angle, typically at either 15 or 18 degrees. Low-cost carrier Ryanair was one of the first to install such seats. UK airline Jet 2 was another early adopter, using pre-reclined seats from Acro, a seatmaking company. Acro’s next iteration of the seat led to a bucket shape, leading to a few extra inches of legroom for passengers. Seatmakers also compensate by thinning the seatback

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What’s the fine print

According to reports, airlines like British Airways and Finnair are doing this on short hauls. As full-service airlines rely on segmentation, reclining seats are offered in economy-plus, but economy gets what they call ‘pre-reclined seats.’

Sources: CNN, Mashable, The Sun

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