ASSESSMENT OF AIRCRAFT PASSENGERS’ COMFORT WITH VARYING SEAT PITCH

Abstract

In-flight comfort has become an important issue among aircraft passengers. Over the years, the seat pitch used in the passenger cabin has been gradually reduced, which is believed to be the main source of in-flight discomfort among the passengers. A sitting comfort experiment is conducted in this study using available aircraft cabin mock-up at the Aerospace Design Simulation Laboratory, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. 30 volunteers participated in the experiment whereby they assigned their level of sitting comfort for five different seat pitch arrangements: 66.04 cm (26 in.), 73.66 cm (29 in.), 81.28 cm (32 in.), 88.90 cm (35 in.) and also 96.52 cm (38 in.). Their sitting comfort rating is assigned using the standard 5-point Likert scale and the collected data is then statistically analyzed using the MINITAB software. From the conducted statistical analysis, it is concluded that the seat pitch setting has a very significant effect on the passengers’ in-flight sitting comfort.