There have been many occasions (when flying) where I’ve fallen asleep before takeoff and never bothered to recline my seat during the rest of the flight. This is usually the case on short flights. On longer flights, I can’t say that I don’t like to recline my seat and I see nothing wrong with doing so. If the seat wasn’t meant to be reclined then it wouldn’t have the capabilities to do so.

I recently came across an article from the Huffington Post: This Airline Is Saying Goodbye To Reclining Seats.

According to the article, Monarch Airlines announced that their new ergonomic seats will not recline. The decision to switch to seats that do not recline was based on customer feedback.

The seats will be thinner and lighter, making them save quite a bit on fuel and emissions.

According to Monarch’s press release “when compared with a set of Monarch’s existing seats, a set of new seats on a flight to Egypt saves 255kg fuel, which is equivalent to 816kg of carbon dioxide saved on a single flight”.

Monarch says that the new seats were chosen with the customer’s needs in mind. The seats have more “living space” and offer better seat storage. There will also be an innovative tablet holder so passengers can create their own personal inflight entertainment system.

What do you think of airlines taking away the ability to recline your seat?

Find out more from the Huff Post and the Monarch press release.