Fats on a Plane: European Edition
Hi y'all! I'm a longtime generally lurking fatshionista. (with the occasional opinionated comment!) I am a Chicago gal by birth but live in London, UK, with my London-born sweetie.
Anyway I spent a few weeks in Brussels for work and while there, I took several flights in Europe and I couldn't help but compare it to similar flights I've taken in the States.
The first flight I took was a Brussels-based carrier, Brussels Airlines. The plane was your average domestic-travel size plane. (Sorry I am not a plane person so I don't remember the number, but I know it was an Airbus.) I am about 5'9.5, weigh something in between 275 - 300 lbs and normally wear a size 20 - 24, depending on the item. The seats were VERY comfortable and there was plenty of slack left on the seatbelt once it was fastened. I was in the absolute cheapest of the cheap seats - you had to pay for water!- and there was still so much room that I never even brushed the elbow of my seatmate. Legroom was similar to American domestic.
A few days later I took two short flights on Air France. Both planes were of the tiny, twin-prop variety. Again, the seat was perfectly comfortable - didn't feel tight at all - and again there was plenty of slack with the seatbelt fastened, and again the leg room was comparable to an American twin-prop.
All of this leads me to wonder... WHY IS THIS? I know on comparable flights in the US I have felt very wedged in the seat and although I have never needed a seatbelt extender there certainly has not really been any slack left after the belt's fastened. Is it just that seats are larger on European planes? If Americans are "Suffering from the obesity epdidemic" and Europeans are so much thinner than us, shouldn't the opposite be true? OR... have American carriers reduced the sizes of the seats in an attempt to cram more people in and possibly extract more money out of those who can't fit in the seats?
Anyway I spent a few weeks in Brussels for work and while there, I took several flights in Europe and I couldn't help but compare it to similar flights I've taken in the States.
The first flight I took was a Brussels-based carrier, Brussels Airlines. The plane was your average domestic-travel size plane. (Sorry I am not a plane person so I don't remember the number, but I know it was an Airbus.) I am about 5'9.5, weigh something in between 275 - 300 lbs and normally wear a size 20 - 24, depending on the item. The seats were VERY comfortable and there was plenty of slack left on the seatbelt once it was fastened. I was in the absolute cheapest of the cheap seats - you had to pay for water!- and there was still so much room that I never even brushed the elbow of my seatmate. Legroom was similar to American domestic.
A few days later I took two short flights on Air France. Both planes were of the tiny, twin-prop variety. Again, the seat was perfectly comfortable - didn't feel tight at all - and again there was plenty of slack with the seatbelt fastened, and again the leg room was comparable to an American twin-prop.
All of this leads me to wonder... WHY IS THIS? I know on comparable flights in the US I have felt very wedged in the seat and although I have never needed a seatbelt extender there certainly has not really been any slack left after the belt's fastened. Is it just that seats are larger on European planes? If Americans are "Suffering from the obesity epdidemic" and Europeans are so much thinner than us, shouldn't the opposite be true? OR... have American carriers reduced the sizes of the seats in an attempt to cram more people in and possibly extract more money out of those who can't fit in the seats?