While more and more airlines in Europe are discovering the “vacant middle seat” as an additional source of income, Delta Air Lines has so far not asked for anything. The company has now announced that this practice will continue until at least March 2021.

The EASA recommends that the airlines that the middle seats, if the occupancy allows it, should remain vacant. However, it is only a recommendation and there are no regulations whatsoever for actually implementing this. In numerous countries, including Austria, the Corona ordinances stipulate that the minimum distance may not be exceeded in public transport - including aviation.

In practice, very few airlines in Europe care about the need for more distance. Occasionally, even with so-called “premium airlines”, the passengers are “crammed together” in the rear part of the cabin while the rest of the cabin remains empty. There is a good reason for this, as a professional pilot explains to Aviation Direct: Most types of aircraft can be operated particularly fuel-efficiently when the load is low, which saves the airline money. However, this is not advisable for every type of aircraft and depends very much on how many passengers there are actually. The pilot also stated that "for example" with the DHC Dash 8-400 this is no longer possible for ten or more passengers, but that these are to be distributed evenly through the cabin for technical reasons.

At Delta Air Lines you will probably see the chaos of the Europeans with a little misunderstanding, because most flights are already underused, so that the blocking of the middle seat - if the aircraft type has one at all - is of no consequence. The US carrier shows that it is possible to provide more distance in the machines at no extra charge. In Europe, the airlines obviously lack the will to do this and if it absolutely has to be, then they should pay for it. At the moment, this is usually not even necessary, as many connections are so weakly used that the few passengers - after consultation with the cabin crew - can usually move around as they please and thus ensure more distance themselves.