A bit of research in advance could have a big impact on your fight
You can boost your legroom at no extra cost
Passengers flying to some of Europe’s most popular destinations with well-known airlines such as Ryanair, easyJet, and British Airways can enjoy extra legroom for free thanks to an ingenious tip.
The website AeroLopa contains detailed plans of various aircraft used by some of the major airlines used in the UK. It revealed that simply sitting on one side of a certain plane can yield more legroom.
And that is not limited simply to emergency exits – the likes of of Ryanair and easyJet have seats with an extra inch of legroom on one side.
So which airlines does this apply to, and how much extra legroom are they offering?
It is worth doing your homework to enjoy the best seats
Ryanair
The Boeing 737=800 is the workhorse of the Ryanair fleet. The budget carrier has more than 400 of them.If you choose seats D, E, and F in rows 3-15, you will have a seat pitch that is 29.5ins.
That is 0.5ins more than on the left-hand side of the same rows. They cost as little as £4.50 per flight, according to the Ryanair website compared to £12 for ‘extra legroom’ seats.
A Ryanair spokesperson told Sky’s Money : “Your average seat pitch is 29ins, which is one inch more than industry standard of 28ins.
“All Ryanair passengers can choose their preferred seat if they so wish at prices which start from £4.50. If passengers don’t wish to select a seat, then they will be allocated a seat free of charge.”
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easyJet
easyJet tends to use European manufacturer Airbus for its planes rather than American company Boeing. If you fly on their Airbus A320-214, you can enjoy half an inch more room on the right-hand side in rows 14 to 29.
Its standard seats start at 99p, with extra legroom seats starting at £7.99. An easyJet spokesperson said: “EasyJet’s fleet includes a range of aircraft with between 156 and 235 seats and the majority of our aircraft have a minimum seat pitch of 29ins. For customers who like to choose where they sit on the aircraft or select a seat with extra legroom, we provide them with the choice to do this for a small fee, starting from £0.99.”
British Airways
British Airways operate both Airbus and Boeing aircraft. If you are on a long-haul flight on a Boeing 787-8 Type 78E, rows 22-24 and rows 31 to 34 in the HJK seats offer more legroom at 32.4ins. That is significantly more than the 31ins for most seats.
Seats in ABC in rows 23 to 25 have the least amount of space at 30.5ins. A shorter flight on an Airbus A320 or an Airbus A320neo has less room on row 30, which has just 28ins – one inch less than other standard seats.
If you are on an Airbus A321 type 21V and are not sitting in the Club Europe section, sitting in rows 15 to 22 will get you the most room at 30.1ins – an increase of 1.1ins compared to other standard seats.