UK: Airlines not spacing out passengers on flights even when there are free seats

UK airlines are not proactively spacing out passengers on board flights even when there are free seats available for them to do so according to Which?. Based on its research into airline load factors (number of occupied seats), the consumer champion found that “several airlines regularly had free seats available to leave a gap between social bubbles of passengers but weren’t doing so”. British Airways had a load factor of just 27.6% in the three months leading up to June this year, which means there’s plenty of room to distance on flights. While it doesn’t proactively distance groups of passengers during seat allocation, it does allow them to pre-select their seats for free 24 hours before departure, which means they are more likely to be seated next to people they’re travelling with. But such distancing is more difficult on airlines where passengers must pay in order to choose their seats. According to Which?, Wizz Air had an average load factor of 55.5% in the three months leading up to June this year, which meant that around every third seat would be empty. But the airline’s random allocation seating policy wasn’t modified during the pandemic, which meant passengers were often seated in clusters and split up from those in their group unless they had paid extra to sit together. Story has more.<br/>