American Airlines plans to add more seats to already tight airplane cabins

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- For people who thought airline travel couldn't get more uncomfortable, a major airline is squeezing even more space out of seats.

"American Airlines is going to do something they call 'densifying the cabin,' which is a really fancy way of saying we're going to add a whole lot more seats. Somewhere between 10 and 15 more seats on a plane that now has 160 seats, so it's going to be a tight squeeze for a lot of passengers," said Brian Sumers, with Skift.com.

Two less inches of leg room means 10 more seats on American Airlines 737 max jetliner, according to CNN. Sumers, an airline business reporter, said even though customer satisfaction with airlines is at a low, American has several reasons to do the change.

"One, of course, they want to make more money. But two, passengers want cheap fares. They always do. People will tell you they want more legroom, they want to be more comfortable. But really what they want to do is fly down to Dallas or Austin for $59 one way. The best way to do that is to pack as many seats as you can in the airplane," he said.

To compare budget airlines such as Frontier and Spirit, they currently offer the least amount of leg room at 28 inches. Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest are more roomie between 31 and 33 inches. One way experts said the consumer can fight back is with their pocket book.

As American Airlines announced the tighter space, United Airlines CEO Oscar Munoz apologized this week to the House Transportation Committee for the incident when passenger Dr. David Doa was forcibly dragged from a flight.