Airline seat
An airline seat is a seat on an airliner in which passengers are accommodated for the duration of the journey. Such seats are usually arranged in rows running across the airplane's fuselage. A diagram of such seats in an aircraft is called an aircraft seat map. Within the industry, this map is known as a LOPA.
Features and amenities
Seats are attached to rails underneath the floor which run along the aircraft fuselage. If the airline wants to reconfigure the seating, this is a minor operation. For passenger safety, all airline seats are equipped with seatbelts.Basic amenities
Seats are frequently equipped with further amenities. Airline seats may be equipped with a reclining mechanism for increased passenger comfort, either reclining mechanically or electrically. Most aircraft also feature trays for eating and reading, either in the seatback which folds down to form a small table in most economy class seats, or inside the armrest which folds out in most first class, business class, bulkhead, and exit row seats. Most airline seats also feature a pocket which may contain an in-flight magazine and safety instructions.On small and short-haul aircraft, or on low-cost carriers, some of these amenities may not be installed. For instance, on several aircraft, Ryanair has installed non-reclining seats without seat pockets with the safety manuals stitched to the seat back instead. Even on airliners with reclining seats, some seats may have a restricted recline or no recline. Typically, this will be the rear row of the cabin where a rear bulkhead blocks the recline, or seats immediately in front of the emergency exit where a reclined seat might restrict access to the emergency exit, creating a potential safety hazard. Independent seat review sites such as SeatGuru often warn passengers against these seats. During take-off and landing, the crew asks passengers to put their seats in an "upright" position and to lift and stow their tray tables.
Advanced amenities
Electronics
Seats may be equipped with power ports for small electrical appliances and ports for headphones for the audio entertainment. Most full-service airlines also include personal video screens as part of the in-flight entertainment system on long-haul aircraft - but some aircraft use a bring-your-own-device system where passengers use their own devices. The screens are often touchscreens or can be controlled by remote handsets. In economy and premium economy, the screen is normally in a seatback, but in a front row seat or premium cabin, they may need to be pulled out from a special compartment after takeoff, and then returned there for landing.Adjustable headrests
Most long-haul aircraft feature seats with adjustable headrests in all classes, allowing the passenger to adjust the headrest for comfort.Adjustable lumbar support
Electrically adjustable lumbar support is found on most long-haul first-class and business-class seats. Rarely, economy class may also include a mechanically adjustable lumbar support on some long-haul aircraft. However, with the trend towards slimline seats in economy class, this amenity has mostly vanished from most new economy class seat installations.Massage
Some business class seats, such as the Recaro CL 4420, have a built-in massaging feature.Lie flat/flat bed seating
Some business class cabins feature seats that recline to a sloped flat position. These "lie flat at an angle" seats allow for greater comfort than traditional recliner seats, but are less comfortable than fully horizontal flat bed seating.Most international first-class and a growing number of international business-class cabins feature seats which recline to a full-horizontal flat position, forming a bed.
"Slimline" economy seating
Some airlines are introducing new "slimline" seats in economy class. While "slimline" is not a defined term, slimline seats have less padding in the back.Slimline seats weigh less than full-size seats, and are claimed to allow airlines to increase capacity without significantly affecting passenger comfort. Many passengers however, have expressed displeasure with these seats. Moreover, the US Department of Transportation has begun to explore the safety issues associated with increased aircraft capacity and reduced seat pitch that results from the installation of "slimline" seats. In an 14 April 2015 hearing of the DOT's Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protection, Cynthia Corbett, an investigator for the Federal Aviation Administration Civil Aerospace Medical Institute, discussed concerns regarding the emergency evacuation of higher capacity aircraft. The citizens' group "Flyers Rights" brought a case against the FAA in 2017, arguing that the agency had a responsibility to prevent seats from becoming so cramped as to become a safety issue in an emergency.
This type of seat was pioneered by Recaro, but several other manufacturers have introduced their own slimline seats as well. These seats may or may not feature moveable headrests, and generally do not feature adjustable lumbar support.
A newer innovation by Zodiac Seats U.S. is an articulating seat bottom, where the seat bottom moves forward in addition to the seat back tilting backwards. Such seats have been installed in some of the aircraft of Aer Lingus, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, American Airlines, and Avianca, amongst others. This seating was eventually adopted by competitors such as B/E Aerospace and Recaro.
Seating layout
Airline cabins are frequently classified as narrow-body if there is a single aisle with seats on either side, or wide-body if there are two aisles with a block of seats between them in addition to the seats on the side.The number of seats abreast is affected by the aircraft width. On very small aircraft such as the Beechcraft 1900 there are only individual seats on each side of the aisle. The widest narrow body aircraft such as the Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737 aircraft have six abreast seating in a 3+3 layout. Asymmetrical layouts also exist, examples including the Embraer Regional Jet which has 1+2 seating while the Douglas DC-9, Sukhoi Superjet 100 and Airbus A220 aircraft typically feature 2+3 seating.
On wide body-aircraft the center block of seats between the aisles can have as many as 5 seats on planes like the layout on most McDonnell Douglas DC-10 and some Boeing 777 aircraft, although Boeing recommends the 3+3+3 over the 2+5+2 layout. Very wide planes such as the Boeing 747 or the Airbus A380 have ten seats abreast, typically in a 3+4+3 layout, although this layout is also sometimes used as a high density layout on aircraft normally seating nine abreast, such as the 777 or DC-10. Recently, airlines have been adopting ten abreast seating on the Boeing 777-300 aircraft. On the Boeing 787, a nine seat 3+3+3 layout has been adopted as the norm by all carriers with the exception of an eight seat 2+4+2 layout on Japan Airlines that afforded a more spacious seating experience for its passengers.
While there are some exceptions, most commercial aircraft seats are forward-facing and on military aircraft seats are frequently rearward-facing. Southwest Airlines previously offered a few rearward-facings seats on some aircraft but that scheme has now ended. Rearward-facing seats are also common on business jets, to provide a conference-type layout. British Airways, United Airlines and American Airlines also have rearward-facing seats in their Club World, domestic 777-200 United First and Business Class Cabins, respectively. It has been argued that rearward-facing seats are safer because in the event of a crash, the sudden deceleration will propel the passenger into a rearward-facing seat instead of out of it, meaning the force is distributed over the entire seat back, instead of the straps of the seat belt. The argument against such seats has been based on passenger comfort, safety and cost. It could be argued that passengers who desire the natural layout of forward-facing seats may be uncomfortable with a rearward layout. On the safety aspect, the argument has been that during a plane crash, debris, such as luggage, will fly forward in the cabin, quite possibly into the passengers in rearward-facing seats. On the cost aspect, rearward-facing seats need additional strengthening which adds extra weight and therefore higher fuel costs.
Many airlines provide maps of their seating configurations on the various aircraft they fly.
For airlines which don't have seat maps, websites like SeatGuru show seat maps for the aforementioned airlines.
Arrangement
Window seats are located at the sides of the aircraft, and usually next to a window, although some aircraft have seat rows where there is a window missing. Window seats are preferred by passengers who want to have a view, or a wall which they can lean against. Passengers in seats adjacent to the aisle have the advantage of being able to leave the seat without having to clamber over the other passengers, and having an aisle they can stretch their legs into. If a seat block has three or more seats, there will also be middle seats which are unpopular because the passenger is sandwiched between two other passengers without advantages of either window or aisle seats. Middle seats are typically booked last.Seat size
When evaluating the size of a seat, the main terms used are pitch and width. No minimum limits have been prescribed by aviation authorities for seat sizing on transport category aircraft.It was reported in 2016 that the average distance between seat rows had declined to, from over, while the average seat width had shrunk to from in the previous two decades.
Seat pitch
Seat pitch is defined as the space between a point on one seat and the same point on the seat in front of it. In almost all cases, seat pitch increases with class of travel For many carriers, the pitch in economy class is. Legroom depends upon seat pitch and the thickness of the seat back. Airlines have claimed that a reduction of seat pitch can be compensated for by a thinner seat-back design.American Airlines' business class seat pitches in their former Boeing 767-200s were, the largest in any short-haul business class. US Airways, now merged with American Airlines, had first-class flatbed seats in their Airbus A330-300s with a seat pitch of 94 inches or 240 cm
In 2010 the seat pitch on low-cost carriers could be as low as in the case of Spirit Airlines but was typically or.