Prepare to Say Goodbye to Extra Legroom in the Exit Row

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When it comes to sitting in the economy section of a plane, the exit row seats are generally the Holy Grail for some passengers. You can tell they are because since airlines started charging you to choose your seats, the exit row has always cost more than the window or aisle seats.

There’s no question why this is the case; the exit row seats have the most legroom. This admittedly doesn’t mean much to a little shrimp like me (all 4’6″ of me). But for someone who is average height, and especially for tall people, there’s more space between you and the row in front of you, and it gives you somewhere to put your legs.

Of course, not everyone is eligible to sit in an exit row seat. You have to pass all of the eligibility requirements that everyone knows (remember my conversation with a gate agent who thought I wasn’t eligible? I showed him!), as well as a few requirements that most people don’t know or think about. But assuming you pass muster and are willing to cough up the cash (or have a credit card that covers such things), you can have legroom for days.

Unfortunately, the good times might not last forever.

Recaro Aircraft Seating is one of the world’s three largest aircraft seat manufacturers. With offices in Germany, the U.S., China, Hong Kong, Poland and South Africa, they’ve been designing airline economy and business class seats since 1971.

Recaro has recently launched a new seat that will let airlines decrease legroom in exit rows, but still meet the EASA and FAA’s requirements for the size of emergency exits (they must have 13 inches of space).

They’re calling it the X-Tend Seat. Here’s how Simple Flying explains it:

The X-Tend Seat features a shorter seat pan along with a flip-up extension. When the extension is not in use, it ensures a 13-inch gap between rows at the emergency exit, as required. When the extension is flipped into place, the seat looks like a regular cushion.

Here’s how Airbus described them  in 2019, when they were participating in the Crystal Cabin Awards (they didn’t win, by the way):

The seats could fit into narrowbody Airbus jets (read: Airbus A319s, A220s, A320s, and A321s) as either new seats on newly-built jets, or as a retrofit. Recaro says that the seats would increase the passenger capacity of, for example, an A320 from 190 to 194.

Here’s an updated look at it, thanks to Paxex.aero (a.k.a. Seth Miller):

Well, now there's a way to trim exit row legroom and maintain egress ratings. @recaro_as has a design where the smaller pan has a flip up for support when seated, then it auto flips out of the way when you stand up. Allows max capacity seating. #paxex #aix2023 pic.twitter.com/slyDG7hMPV

— Seth Miller (@WandrMe) June 5, 2023

Simple Flying suggested that since airlines make so much extra money by selling exit row seats, on top of the cost of a new cabin configuration, the success of X-Tend seats might be questionable. However, if an airline is replacing its seats anyway, and has an opportunity to add 4 seats to its capacity, wouldn’t that increase its profits more in the long run?

Enjoy that legroom while you can, travel friends.

Feature Image (cropped): Wikipedia (via Panaramio) / CC BY-SA 3.0

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary