WASHINGTON (CN) – The Federal Aviation Administration must go back to the drawing board to address what one appeals court judge on Friday called “The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Airline Seat.”

In 2015, Paul Hudson, president of consumer advocacy nonprofit the Flyers Rights Education Fund, asked the FAA to issue rules setting minimum size requirements for seats on commercial airlines. “As many have no doubt noticed, aircraft seats and the spacing between them have been getting smaller and smaller, while American passengers have been growing in size.”

The court found in favor of Flyers Rights, a nonprofit advocacy group, which had argued that steadily shrinking legroom and seat size created a safety hazard and that the Federal Aviation Administration should impose new restrictions. All three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed the FAA must conduct a new review of the request for regulations setting a minimum airline seat size, but Judge Judith Rogers dissented from part of the court’s rationale. “As the average American gets bigger, seats are getting much smaller.”

The nonprofit Flyers Rights Education Fund provided the court evidence that the distance between most economy seats has gone from 35 inches to 31, and some airlines go as small as 28 inches. Flyers Rights gave the court evidence that the average width of airplane seats has declined from 18.5 inches in the early 2000s, to 17 inches by about 2005. We are studying the ruling carefully and any potential actions we may take to address the court’s findings.”

The long-term impact of the court rules remains unclear. “As many have no doubt noticed, aircraft seats and the spacing between them have been getting smaller and smaller, while American passengers have been growing in size.”

The issue could wind up in Congress. A U.S. House of Representatives bill under consideration would require the FAA to set minimum seat sizes on U.S. airlines and a minimum distance between rows to “protect the safety and health of airline passengers.”

Last month American Airlines Group Inc said it would reduce leg room by one inch to 30 inches instead of two as originally planned on some seats in its Boeing 737 MAX jets.
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millett rejects the Federal Aviation Administration argument that seat size is unimportant when passengers exit a plane in an emergency, and orders the FAA to set minimum standards for the space airlines give passengers.