Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Does the aircraft seat crunch create an unsafe condition?

hi there I'm Mary Kirby with runway girl

network and you've landed on PaxEx TV

Iin this episode we're going to look at

the seat crunch that is happening on

aircraft around the world as airlines

tighten up seat pitch and seat width

there's a devolution occurring in

certain economy class cabins and our

deputy editor John Walton joins us from

Japan to discuss this issue but first a

word from our sponsor Panasonic avionics

John American Airlines recently

announced that its new Boeing 737 max

narrow-body aircraft are going to

feature three rows with 29 inch pitch

that's kind of tight for legacy airlines

the big question I guess is how low can

they go. Well that's a really interesting

question isn't it I mean you know we've

seen concepts in the past that Aircraft

Interiors Expo for example of saddle

seats and seats facing each other which

means you can cram people in at 27

inches we'd sort of flip down seating

now one of the things that I'm concerned

about of course is the safety aspects of

this are you going to be able to

evacuate people from an aircraft full of

28 inch pitch seats that's that's

something has been studied

enough by regulators by seat makers and

by air framers. Regulators are accepting

simulation testing to show that

passengers can evacuate from these

aircraft and they're not they're not

demanding real-life evacuations and is

this something we should be concerned

about? One of the issues with the

evacuation side of things is that the

air framers are using people who are not

the average mix of passengers so an

Airbus did the a380 evacuation for

example they use a mix of staff members

and gym members in the local area now

that's not your average mix of

passengers you know it's not the

families and it's not got kids it's not

got old people it's not got people with

reduced mobility and it's not even got

the amount of hand luggage that people

are carrying aboard flight these days

you know British Airways permits 23

kilos of hand luggage other airlines

don't even have a hand luggage weight

limit as long as you can lift it into

the bin yourself you're fine that's not

really something that's been adequately

in my view tested in the real world to

ensure that passengers are safe in the

event of an evacuation frustrating thing

from a safety perspective is that flying

is the most safe form of transportation

in the world and the industry has done a

great job in making the overall flight

experience incredibly safe

and it's frustrating that the industry

does rest on those laurels when it comes

to the cabin interior. I wonder if we'll

see a renewed push from regulators on

this front

you know the FAA has said in the past

that it would be looking at potentially

doing some real-life evacuation testing

and the last time we checked in with

them at least so here's hoping that that

moves forward with their Medical

Institute more broadly regulators have

had a lot to say lately about passenger

comfort and the passenger experience

here in the United States United

Airlines of course that recent horrific

dragging incident prompted lawmakers to

discuss the issue in a recent House

Transportation Committee hearing John

did you get a chance to check this out? I

did not no one ever got unelected for

saying mean things about the airlines

right that and that was very much the

tone of this hearing the the problem is

that the aviation industry really does

not want or need Congress to come in and

impose regulations but the industry is

not doing enough to self-regulate in a

number of areas around passenger

experience around customer service

around the the rise of bundling and the

ancillary side of things there are a lot

of people who consider that the airlines

are doing bates and switch around pricing

right now and we know different we know

that the airlines are doing all sorts of

interesting things are unbundling and

ancillary options but to normal passengers

that doesn't look like that and there's

a big risk that if the airlines don't

really start taking a look at what their

business model is in terms of how they

interact and how they position

themselves with regard to passengers

that regulators in the US or the

European Union or even Australia will

come in and say look this is not this is

not something that you're gonna be able

to do anymore

and and that will be an external shock

and it's a big risk for the industry

well thanks so much for joining us John

to talk about this really important

issue of course we will be paying very

close attention to how things

evolve in the passenger experience

space to our watchers out there join us

again next time for the latest news on

the passenger experience.