Why Are Passengers So Harsh on Airplane Seats?
Photo Credit: Seating manufacturer Lift by EnCore, like its competitors, tries to ensure its seats are nearly indestructible. Passengers are rough on them. Lift by EnCore
Skift Take
You ever sit in an airline seat and think, "Boy, this thing is not in good shape"? Don't blame the airline. Blame your fellow passengers.
Why do airline passengers abuse seats?
It's a question most of the industry's seat suppliers confront often. They build what they believe are pristine products, capable of withstanding the rigors of three or four flights a day for a decade. Then passengers start sitting in them. And, well, they're not kind.
"Every time I get into an aircraft, I always wonder, ‘Who the hell sat in here before me? What have they done? They’ve trashed it,’" said Gareth Burks, managing director of seat-maker rebel.aero. “As a supplier to the industry, it’s really frustrating that you get hammered by quality control. They have to be perfect on day one. You just know by day two they look probably five years old — scratched and kicked.”
I wrote about the phenomenon this week, drawing from my experience at the Aircraft Interiors Show last month in Hamburg. While there, I learned passengers are brutal on aircraft interiors. They kick. They claw. They draw on seats.
Maybe they do it bec
