There was a
big hue and cry when Mr. Shashi Tharoor used the term Cattle Class for the economy class in aircrafts. However we
should be grateful to him for bringing out the inhuman way in which passengers
are packed like sardines in a merciless quest to maximize earnings. There seems to be a competition amongst
airlines who try to outdo each other in shaving centimetres off the seats in x
and y directions: Mercifully dimension z remains unaffected.
Recently I
had an occasion to travel in the economy class on an Air Berlin flight. Most passengers were Europeans, tall and well
built. I could imagine their plight as
the seats were not too comfortable even for me, a person of average Indian
build. As boarding progressed, a large
obese man came in, looked at his seat and said aloud in mock despair, “Oh my
God, the seats are so small!” Everybody
joined him in a hearty laugh.
This
aircraft appeared to have shrunk the tiny spaces near toilet and pantry blocks
too. These are the spaces where
passengers spend some time standing during long haul flights. I am sure that majority of the passengers
must have felt highly claustrophobic.
What adds
to the woe of a typical passenger is the insistence of the passenger in front of him
on going into a recline at the first available opportunity after the take off. This has a domino effect until and unless a considerate
passenger decides against succumbing to the temptation on account of a
consideration to the fellow passenger behind him. Then again, as most peoples’ knees are
pressing against the back of the seat in front, a restless passenger who turns
and twists in his seat passes on the convulsions to the one behind him as also one in front of him. This too may lead to a chain reaction. Just as we hear of road rage, there are
reports of CC (Cattle Class) rage in the economy cabins.
What comes
as a surprise is that most airlines complain of losses despite these stringent
millimetre cutting measures. Air Berlin
is no different. They are talking of
shrinking their fleet and cost cutting measures. Though, one suspects that what they mean is
shrinking of economy class seats and micrometre cutting measures.
The
situation is so bad that in my opinion we, the denizens of economy class, must
take the issue to the International Human Rights Commission. Agree?
PS: Blessed are those magnanimous passengers who resist the temptation to recline their seat back and also sit still in their chairs out of sheer compassion for fellow sufferers.
