Frontier Airlines Rewarding Passengers Stuck In The Middle With A Wider Seat

Her arm is touching your arm. His tuna sandwich breath is just too close. Such are the annoyances facing travelers who get stuck with the middle seat on airplanes. Frontier Airlines is willing to throw those passengers a bone, and will be adding an extra bit of room to the middle seat as part of a new seating overhaul on some of its planes.

In a story from Conde Nast Traveler that has currently caught the eye of the Internet, Frontier says the new seats it’s installing in its Airbus 320s and 319s will have a whole extra inch of width for those sitting in the middle of the row, coming in at 19 inches.

Even more exciting, in a world where add-on fees have become the norm, the wider seats won’t cost travelers any extra cash.

However, the new seating plan also comes with its share of downsides, because of course it does, this is an airline we’re talking about: seating rows will be closer together, so that the pitch — the distance between the end point on one seat and the same point in the seat ahead of it — is only 28 inches, compared to the previous 30 inches in the previous seating plan.

Or as the airline’s president, Barry Biffle, calls it, a “built-in knee guard,” CNT notes.

Seats will also be stuck in position, in a new “pre-reclined” mode that is designed to keep flight attendants from constantly reminding people to return their seats to the upright position. A total of 12 seats will be added to each flight with this new arrangement.

The One Airline That’s Actually Improving the Middle Seat [Conde Nast Traveler]

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