Why is it that people pay hundreds of dollars and risk death to sit in confined spaces for eight, nine or ten hours? I mean, when David Blane does it, everyone says he's mad and that it requires superhuman strength to tolerate such discomfort.
Naturally, I'm talking about the money people pay to airlines. Airlines like Virgin Atlantic and American Airlines which today transported Emma and I 6208 miles from La Paz, Bolivia to London in conditions reminiscent of a Houdini contortion performance.
It occurs to me that if animals were confined in spaces three inches wider than their bodies for hours on end the RSPCA would be outraged! Nine days after 9/11 a report highlighted that more legroom on planes would reduce the incidence of DVT. Hmmm...I wonder why that wasn't in the headlines?
If evidence supports the need for more legroom, why isn't anybody doing anything about it?
Well, apparently, they are, but they're losing court cases in the US state courts against the airlines on the grounds that an increased legroom requirement would directly impact airline pricing. You see, airline pricing is not something that US state laws are allowed to interfere with.
Interestingly, the US Fifth Circuit court of appeals has suggested that the Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether a law can be passed to increase legroom on planes.
For a while though it looked like the airlines would proactively improve the situation. With a great deal of advertising, American Airlines launched a 'more legroom' campaign in 2001 when it removed several rows of seats per plane. Then it decided it couldn't afford the reduction in revenue, so this year the company put the seats back in. Ah well, no surprise there.
Can't wait for my next long haul flight!
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