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The average Brit is significantly wider than the seats on the airline with the narrowest in the world.

If you’ve flown with the likes of Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air, then you’ll have experienced the bum-numbing, knee-crunching seats that have become synonymous with the budget airline experience.

However, there is an airline that has smaller seats than all of the above. According to an analysis of publicly available plane specifications, the airline with the narrowest seats in the world is French Bee.

The low-cost, long-haul airline based at Paris Orly Airport offers seats just 42.4cm wide.

This is significantly narrower than the average Brit. The UK Health and Safety Executive’s anthropometric data puts the average shoulder width for a UK adult at 48.8 cm.

French Bee has decided to load its aircraft with more seats, each smaller than average, to accommodate more passengers on board.

On the standard A350, most airlines fly a 9-abreast (3-3-3) economy layout. French Bee instead squeezes in a 10-abreast (2-4-2 or 3-4-3) layout on its A350-1000s to maximize capacity. It’s that extra seat per row is what forces the width down to 42.4cm. Only the very rear of the cabin, where the fuselage narrows, reverts to the standard 3-3-3 layout.

For comparison, Air France, flying the same A350 family, uses the standard 9-abreast layout and offers 45.7cm.

The width of the French Bee seats is particularly notable, given that the airline operates long-haul flights, typically trans-Atlantic. Most long-haul airlines have wider seats than their short-haul, budget rivals.

It’s not just seat width that determines how comfortable it will be, however. The seat pitch, which is the distance from a specific point on one seat to the exact same point on the seat directly in front of or behind it, as well as the padding, contribute to overall comfort.

Airline seat sizes

(Airline, seat width, seat pitch)

• French Bee: 42.4 cm, seat pitch unknown
• Ryanair: Around 43 cm, 71–97 cm (varies by aircraft)
• British Airways: Around 43 cm, 74–79 cm
• Jetstar: Around 45.5 cm, 71 cm
• Vueling: Around 44.5 cm, 74 cm
• EasyJet: 44.5–45.7 cm, around 74 cm
• United: 43–44.5cm, 76–81 cm (varies significantly by aircraft age)
• American/United: Around 43 cm, around 76 cm
• Delta: 43.7–46 cm, 79–84 cm
• Southwest: Around 45 cm, 76–81 cm

According to most rankings, Japan Airlines has the widest seats of any commercial carrier. It repeatedly comes out on top across 2026 sources for the widest standard economy seats in the world.

On its Boeing 787 “Sky Wider” cabins, JAL uses an unusual eight-abreast (2-4-2) layout instead of the industry-standard nine-abreast — sacrificing one seat per row to give passengers more room. Independent reviews have measured these seats at roughly 48–48.3 cm wide.

French Bee has been contacted for comment.