Amen!!!!!!

Exactly, who needs seatbelts, crash resistant seats, O2 masks and especially work and rest rules.

Yeah! Screw the O2 masks!!!

...but seriously, safety I’m all for but this is comfort we are talking about...Congress doesn’t need to get involved in that.

Mostly kidding, we are probably in the most regulated industry already. I think enough people will start voting with their wallet/feet if they try to make it anymore uncomfortable.

All of those regs are for safety. Comfortable does not mean safer. People can vote with wallets.

+1
When government sets the floor or standards of anything, innovation suffers as does competition.
The minimum becomes the standard in most cases...
Look at different bussines, from butter in the USA compared to overseas, to building standards in the USA...
The list goes on and on...

I think at some point putting 250 people in a bus or a 737 is a safety concern.

However, the problem with measuring minimum seat size by "pitch" is not right. The thickness of the seat is a huge factor that pitch does not account for. The ultra slimline seats on frontier actually give plenty of legroom with less pitch. I've sat on both united and AA economy recently and it's unquestionably less legroom than frontier. Comfy seats, but terrible legroom.

The FAA simply can't go with pitch, it's a bad metric to use

I agree, I regularly commute on Delta and when getting a regular coach seat on an MD88 my knees always hit the bar of the seatback magazine storage thing and it becomes uncomfortable very quickly. On Spirit my knees don't touch the seat in front of me even though the pitch is several inches less. Granted the Delta seats are probably more comfortable to sit on for someone who isn't 6 feet or taller. But the whole "lack of legroom" doesn't hold any weight in my opinion...

The FAA is going with pitch because the ULCCs have seats with fixed pitch. The legacies seats recline so while offering less leg room and width they offer more pitch. This is just the FAA placing their finger on the scale for the big airlines. As usual.

And again, the language at hand...

a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, and after providing notice and an opportunity for comment, the Administrator of the
Federal Aviation Administration shall issue regulations that establish minimum dimensions for passenger seats on aircraft operated by air carriers in interstate air transportation or intrastate air transportation, including minimums for seat pitch, width, and length, and that are necessary for the safety and health of passengers


It’s fun to speculate that the FAA wants to end ULCC, with zero evidence of this, but try to stick to facts. What are examples of “as usual” where the FAA enacts policy to favor legacy carriers while trying to hurt ULCC?