D.C. Court of Appeals Says FAA not Required to Adopt Seating Rules

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the FAA needn’t set standards regarding the number of seats and their density in commercial passenger aircraft unless impacting safety.

The decision strikes a blow to the plaintiff, Flyers Rights. They had hoped that the lawsuit would impel the FAA “to commence rulemaking to establish minimum seat size and spacing requirements for commercial aircraft,” and to issue a final rule cementing the standard. Their claim was that tight seating leads to slower evacuation in an emergency, in addition to exacerbating issues like strokes and blood clots over long flights. Currently, airlines are simply required to be able to evacuate passengers within 90 seconds, without much more to consider when establishing density.

Writing the opinion, Circuit Judge Justin Walker rejected the claims, saying that the plaintiffs had not made a “clear and indisputable” showing that any seat size regulations are necessary for the safety of passengers. In fact, Walker cites FAA efforts to search for a correlation between seat size and evacuation speeds, noting that the FAA has “reviewed nearly 300 real-world exits”. But each time, he said, “there is little to no discernible difference in evacuation times due to seat dimensions.”

“According to the FAA,” Walker continued, “that’s in part because ‘the time it takes to stand up from one’s seat... is less than the time it will take to get the emergency exits opened and functional and for the line that begins forming in the aisle to clear’.”

Perhaps key is Walker’s admission that “many airline seats are uncomfortably small,” but it is not “clear and indisputable” that airline seats have become dangerously small.”. 

FMI: www.uscourts.gov