Simon Whistler explains why seats don’t line up with the windows on airplanes in a revealing episode of Today I Found Out. The cause has to do with airlines trying to maximize the number of passengers per flight by using different seating configurations than manufacturers recommend.
While airplane manufacturers do design the planes with general row positioning and pitch (the measurement from one seat to the same exact point on the seat in front or behind it) in mind, with the windows often lining up with the seats, the designers’ exact recommended arrangement is rarely, if ever, followed. You see, the final placement of seats is left up to the individual airlines that purchase the plane.
