The roominess of an airplane seat can make or break a flight for my partner and me, though the two of us have very different definitions of spaciousness.
At 6 foot 6 inches, he’s concerned about legroom. Too little space and either his knees dig into the back of the chair ahead of him or his legs extend out into the aisle, which isn’t particularly safe. I, on the other hand, care more about seat width. I value my personal space and don’t enjoy touching shoulders or rubbing thighs with strangers at 30,000 feet. For each of us, a few extra inches one way or the other goes a long way in making us more comfortable.
If you need or want a bit more space to stretch out, knowing which airlines offer the most legroom and the widest seats can significantly enhance your journey. These are some of the airlines that consistently provide the most space.
Top airlines with the most legroom in coach
A recent study from Upgraded Points, a travel analysis website, looked at which airlines offer the most legroom in coach. To calculate the average amount of legroom for each airline, Upgraded Points analyzed planes across each carrier’s 10 busiest domestic flight routes (because the type of aircraft used plays a role in the space allotted) and zeroed in on which offered the most seat pitch (the distance between a point on one seat and the same point on the seat ahead of it) on average. The winners were:
- JetBlue: 32.3 inches
- Southwest Airlines: 32 inches
- Alaska Airlines/Delta Air Lines (tied): 31.8 inches
- American Airlines: 31 inches
- United Airlines: 30.2 inches
In business class, it’s harder to identify which airlines offer the most legroom without additional parameters. For the purpose of this article, we’re not considering seats that are angled flat or lay flat, but just those that simply recline and are more common on domestic flights. To determine the data, we used information from SeatGuru (a website that allows users to compare seat specs across all major airlines and their jets) to assess the average legroom across either each type of plane or across different kinds of planes in the various carrier fleets that an airline uses for flights under six hours within the United States. The winners are:
- Alaska Airlines: 40.3 inches on average
- Hawaiian Airlines: 37 inches across all planes
- American Airlines: 36.8 inches on average
- Delta Air Lines: 36.7 inches on average
- United Airlines: 35.6 inches on average
Top airlines with the widest seats in coach
We also used SeatGuru to pull data for seat width across all the planes used by the top 10 carriers in the United States on their domestic short-haul routes and found the average. In the instances where seat width ranged on a given aircraft type (like American Airlines Embraer ERJ-175 Layout 1, which spans between 18.2 and 19.3 inches, depending on the plane), we went with the lower number. The winners are:
- JetBlue: 18.1 on average
- Delta Air Lines: 17.64 inches on average
- Alaska Airlines: 17.53 inches on average
- Hawaiian Airlines: 17.5 inches on average
- Southwest Airlines: 17.4 inches on average
For business class, the carriers with the widest seats according to SeatGuru data are:
- Alaska Airlines: 21 inches across all planes
- Delta Air Lines: 20.54 inches on average
- American Airlines: 20 inches on average
- United Airlines: 19.5 inches on average
- Hawaiian Airlines: 18.5 across all planes
