Congressional lawmakers quietly removed language from an aviation bill that would have guaranteed airplane passengers the right to drinking water on flights, according to legislative text reviewed by The Lever.
Lawmakers are also rejecting demands to set minimum seat dimensions, even as airplane seat sizes have shrunk several inches over the past four decades.
The decisions reflected in legislation governing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) follow airlines spending nearly $5 million lobbying Congress in the first four months of the year, according to lobbying disclosures reviewed by The Lever.
In July 2023, the House of Representatives advanced an initial version of bipartisan FAA legislation requiring airlines to provide drinking water to passengers on flights longer than an hour — a basic human need that airlines currently do not legally have to fulfill, even on hours-long flights.
Thank you for your reporting on this issue and so many others!
With regard to the shrinking seat sizes, it most certainly does adversely impact health and safety. It is also a social justice issue in that larger people simply don't fit in those seats. The airlines get away with their discrimination by implying people are fat because they are lazy, pigs and therefore it's fair for them to have to incur additional costs for roomier seats. This is untrue and patently discriminatory and furthermore disregards the fact that very tall folks also find it difficult and outrageously uncomfortable to fit into a standard coach seat. The choice for larger bodied people is either to submit to discriminatory fees for reasonable accommodation or to forego airline travel. Size-based discrimination should be against the law.