Government Seat Pitch Regulation of Commercial Airlines: A Multi-Study of Consumer Perceptions

Abstract

Since deregulation of the airline industry in the 1970’s, the distance between seats on commercial aircraft referred to as seat pitch has been decreasing. What used to be around 35 inches has now reduced to 28-31 inches depending on the type of airline and fare class purchased. As a result, some consumer advocacy groups have filed litigation and pressed the U.S. Congress to regulate a minimum seat pitch. These advocacy groups primarily cite safety concerns in the event of an emergency evacuation of the aircraft or health concerns such as deep vein thrombosis, which can occur from extended sitting periods and cramped quarters. Counter-arguments relate to consumers price sensitivity as it relates to airfare purchases, and their ability to purchase upgrades, such as seats with greater seat pitch, for additional fees. Therefore, the purpose of these studies was to identify consumer perceptions on government involvement in airline seat pitch and to create and validate a statistical model to predict a passenger’s support of government regulation of seat pitch. The findings indicate that approximately 60% of passengers felt the government should regulate seat pitch. Perceptions of regulation value, disgust, happiness, Republican political affiliation, Hispanic ethnicity, Asian ethnicity, and high school level of education were significant predictors of support for government regulation of commercial airline seat pitch. The model explains 53.7% of the variance, and three separate, secondary assessments suggested good model fit and a valid model was produced. The practical applications of these findings are discussed.