Reclining your seat on an airplane is one of the few luxuries of air travel, but starting on Saturday, Delta Airlines is reducing the extent to which their seats can recline in their Airbus A320 jets.
Coach seats will reduce from four to two inches, while the first-class seat reclines will drop from 5.5 inches to 3.5 inches.
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Delta expects it will take two months to change all of Delta’s A320s which includes about 62 planes in the fleet.
The airline says they’re testing out this seat reclining reduction as a means of preserving passengers’ personal space. They were adamant that they’re not reducing legroom or making this move in an effort to add additional seats.
The A320s in Delta’s lineup generally fly one-to-two-hour routes across North America. With such short flights, Delta believes that most passengers will be busy working and engaging with entertainment screens, rather than wanting to relax and fall asleep.
By only having the ability to recline two inches, the airline believes its less likely to disrupt the passenger behind you as they work or try to watch inflight entertainment.
“It’s really not at all a gateway to reducing your legroom. That is not the intent here,” Dimbiloglu told The Points Guy. “If we were adding seats, or something else, the cynics would be correct. But this is really about more personal space.”
Delta says this is just a “test,” and that passenger feedback will ultimately determine whether they’ll expand the seat reclining reduction to the rest of their fleet or return the seats to their original reclining capability of four and 5.5 inches.
If you take a Delta A320 flight in the near future and you’re not happy with the limited seat reclining ability – speak up.
