More Fights Breaking Out Over Shrinking Airline Seats

Have you noticed that more and more fights are breaking out in airlines lately? It seems most of them start out with passengers arguing about knee room since they're being squeezed by increasingly tight seating by the airlines.

The AP had a news story the other day about three U.S. flights that had to make unscheduled landings after some rather unruly passengers started fighting over them trying to recline their seats. It seems that disputes over something as trivial as a little bit of somebody's personal space in an airplane might seem a little petty, but when your knees are banging into your tray table to start with and then some inconsiderate you-know-what starts pushing it into your stomach, well, you get the idea. 

The airlines, in order to make even more money than they already do, are adding even more rows and rows of seats. United and Southwest both took out an inch from every row on certain of their jets recently so they could add six more seats. American Airlines has added 10 seats on its Boeing 737-800s for a total of 160 (all even more cramped than before). Delta has gone them even better by installing new, smaller toilets in their 737-900s, just so they can squeeze in four extra seats. (Remember the last time you tried to use an airplane toilet? ;-}) And JetBlue cut the distance between coach seats by one more inch, just so they could make room for some nice new beds on their overseas flights.

You know as well as I do that today's flying experience is nowhere near as glamorous as it once was. You wait in long lines so you can go through security screening, then you get pushed and shoved at the gate while you try to be the first to board, and then you have to fight just to get a little extra space in the overhead bin.

On a United flight back in August, a man prevented the lady in front of him from pushing her seat back by using a delightful little gadget called a Knee Defender. For $21.95, you can get one too. It attaches to your tray table and locks the seat to prevent the person in front of you from being able to recline. An attendant on the flight told the man that he had to unhook the device. He said no, and the gal in front of him threw her cup of water at him.

Then, on an American flight three days later, a couple of passengers started fighting about another reclining seat and the flight on its way to Paris from Miami had to turn around and make an unscheduled stop in Boston.

According to the Associated Press, there were almost 15,000 flight diversions by U.S. airlines over the twelve months that ended last June. That's over 40 flights per day on average making unscheduled landings for one reason or another. It looks like banged knees and frayed nerves are the cause of more and more of them.