You don’t need a tape measure to prove that your airline seat is getting smaller, and the distance between your seat and the seat in front of you has also been reduced.

It’s been argued that prisoners sailing to Australia and Roman slaves had more legroom and seat pitch than today’s airline passengers.

Back in 2018, Congress directed the FAA to come up with a new set of standards for safe airline seating.

Congress didn’t do this because of passenger comfort, but so that seats could be designed for passengers to more easily and safely evacuate a plane in the case of emergency.

More than seven years later, the FAA has still not acted on Congress’ order.