US: FAA's failure to stop seat shrinkage targeted by passenger group

The head of an airline passenger rights group called on the public to protest a decision by US regulators not to set standards on cramped aircraft seating -- and took a potshot at President Donald Trump for not flying commercial. The FAA said this week that it has “no evidence that there is an immediate safety issue necessitating rule-making at this time,” despite a court order that it examine whether shrinking legroom and cramped seats should be regulated. “Now that the FAA bureaucracy has again rejected any regulation of seat size and passenger space while ridiculing passenger discomfort and dismissing all safety and health concerns, the only likely recourse for the traveling public is by overwhelming public outcry to comment online in opposition to the FAA decision,” said Paul Hudson, president of the nonprofit citizens group Flyers Rights. The group sued the FAA in 2017, claiming emergency evacuations could be slowed by more tightly-packed seating after airlines began adding rows to their planes, enabled by new, slimmer seat designs. Flyers Rights said in a press release that the FAA admits it doesn’t test airliner compliance with its rules that passengers must be able to evacuate a fully occupied aircraft within 90 seconds. Instead, the agency relies on partial demonstrations by manufacturers that Hudson called “questionable.” He noted that the US House passed legislation in April mandating the FAA to set seat standards.<br/>