Every inch matters in modern air travel.
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Whether you want to know exactly what to expect from your economy-tier ticket or have a plan to nab extra legroom, space is a major consideration for most flyers. The more space you have, the more comfortable your flight is.
While that probably seems like a simple idea, the reality is that airlines don’t usually advertise their seat width or seat pitch. Travelers might pay more for a premium economy seat that’s a bit larger or even buck up for a business class seat to avoid spending hours crammed into their seats.
But that’s not really the end-all of finding a comfortable, wide seat.
Here’s the catch: every airline has a different seat width and seat pitch. From basic economy to first-class, seat size and the amount of legroom offered aren’t uniform.
That means a premium economy seat with one airline might cost the same as a basic economy ticket with another—all for the same price.
Want to know which airlines skimp when it comes to seat size? Here are the airlines with the largest economy seats.
Seat size: width vs. pitch
First up, let me differentiate between seat width and pitch. Width covers the actual seat’s size from armrest to armrest. Seat pitch, by contrast, is the amount of space from one seat to the next row. Seat pitch is concerned with legroom.
Depending on your concerns as a flyer, you might be fine with sacrificing one for the other. If you’re flying with kids, for example, you might want more width. If you’re over six foot, you’re probably more concerned with pitch.
If you want to dig into the details of seat width and pitch airline by airline, there are a few resources. I usually use SeatGuru, but it’s no longer being updated consistently. The same for AeroLopa. It looks like Flyertalk has a few active forums on the topic, but keep your finger on the pulse if you want the latest updates.
The rankings: JetBlue has the biggest economy seats
Below you can find rankings for basic economy seats, including both width and pitch. Please keep in mind that these metrics might vary based on plane type. For the purposes of this ranking, I’m listing out the measurements for their most used aircraft.
Here’s the short of it: JetBlue has the largest basic economy seats, but American Airlines and Delta aren’t too far behind in terms of both width and pitch.
Seat sizes and seat pitch from the most popular US airlines in alphabetical order:
American Airlines
- Pitch: 30-32’
- Width: 17-18’
Delta
- Pitch: 30-32’
- Width: 17.2-18.6’
JetBlue
- Pitch: 32-34’
- Width: 17.8-18.25’
Southwest
- Pitch: 31’
- Width: 17.5’
United
- Pitch: 31-32’
- Width: 17.3’
