STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3320

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.R. No. 121

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Transportation and Energy and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.R. No. 121 entitled:

"SENATE RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION TO ESTABLISH MINIMUM DIMENSIONS FOR PASSENGER SEATS ON AIRCRAFT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to request the Secretary of Transportation to establish minimum dimensions for passenger seats on aircraft operated by any air carrier in the provision of interstate air transportation or intrastate air transportation.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from one individual.

     Your Committees find that the federal government does not impose a minimum passenger seat size and the airline industry opposes any seat standard.  Your Committees further find that the average legroom for airline passenger seats has shrunk from about thirty-five inches in the 1970s to nearly thirty-one inches today, with seat width narrowing from eighteen and one-half inches in the 1990s to about seventeen inches today.  The decrease in the size of airline passenger seats, coupled with the growing problem of obesity in America, may pose threats to the safety and health of passengers during situations such as an emergency evacuation.

Your Committees additionally find that wider seat dimensions for commercial flights promote not only safety and health but comfort as well.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Energy and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees concur with the intent and purpose of S.R. No. 121 and recommend its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Energy and Public Safety, Intergovernmental, and Military Affairs,

________________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair