It seems that the seats on airplanes keep shrinking, making it much less comfortable to fly in economy class. The airlines can care less about personal space, cramming more and more seats onto each plane.

There’s a chance that this could change in the future…

The House recently approved FAA legislation which could set a minimum size standard for airplane seats.

The new bill, if passed would “order the FAA within a year to develop regulations on minimum standards for seating, including the distance between rows and the width of seats”, according to USA Today.

(The actual minimum standards weren’t listed in the bill.)

Since deregulation, seat pitch (the distance between rows) have decreased from 35 inches to around 31 inches currently. The width has also decreased from 18 inches to 16.5 inches. Although it sounds like just a few inches, that’s still a lot of space to lose.

There were also some other consumer- friendly legislation in the bill:

• Banning calls during flights unless it was from crew or law enforcement
• Ban airlines from bumping passenger who have already boarded the plane
• Require airlines to publish the compensation when a flight gets diverted which would include rebooking options, refunds, meals and lodging
• Create a Transportation Department hotline and smartphone app for travelers to report complaints

The regulations listed in the bill seem very good for customers. Hopefully they gain approval and we start to see the size of airline seats increasing in the near future!

Find out more from USA Today here.