In the wake of a backlash sparked by a viral video, WestJet has cancelled a new seat configuration that squeezed an extra row on board many of its planes and left passengers with stiflingly little legroom — and the airline with a budding customer exodus.
In a Friday news release issued shortly after the airline sent a memo staff, WestJet announced its decision to return the cabins to a more spacious layout — a pricey reinstallation process — after negative feedback from employees and customers.
CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a phone interview that he made the final call when the blowback began to show up in the sales figures.
"We saw that this was all trending in the wrong direction," he said of data on customer loyalty and guest satisfaction.
"It just didn't land the way we were anticipating ... and that's why we're correcting it."
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The overhaul will likely be completed by year's end, he said.
Already installed on nearly two-dozen of WestJet's Boeing 737s, the non-reclining seats in a majority of the cabin's economy section featured the smallest amount of leg room on any large Canadian carrier.
The configuration, which had been planned for at least 20 more aircraft, went on to draw national attention after a TikTok video showing the tight fit for passengers drew more than 1.1 million views.
Staff and travellers warned that the cramped cabin curtails safety, particularly in the event of an evacuation, and hurts the customer experience.
WestJet has pointed out that the reconfiguration underwent a full certification process.
A dozen of the 22 rows in the planes' economy class feature 28-inch pitch — the distance between one point on a seat and the same point on the seat in front — versus 29- or 30-inch pitches on most other carriers' lower-tier seats. They also have what WestJet calls a “fixed recline design,” meaning they cannot be tilted back.
Hoensbroech noted that a 28-inch pitch is common among discount carriers, especially in Europe — where trips are generally shorter.
"However, we knew this is new to Canada," he said from Calgary. "The unique thing about Canada is the very long stage length, particularly during the winter peak season where many of those flights were going south to the Caribbean." Flights there generally range from four and a half to six hours.
WestJet said it will begin to convert all of its tight-packed 180-seat jets to a 174-seat layout after receiving regulatory certification.
The change could come with trade-offs for travellers.
"It sucks to have to pay more to fit into a seat. I get that. But also some people are just not well off financially enough to be able to afford more, and if they can have that cheaper option, why not?" said Andrew D'Amours, founder of flight deal site Flytrippers.
"But it is certainly very, very tiny."
Whatever the effect on fares, the decision marks a direct response to customer feedback — or bad publicity.
"It's one of the rare occasions where people's voices and opinions have an actual impact on how airlines treat us," D'Amours said.
The reconfiguration also carries complications for the airline.
"It comes at a cost" — and not just from reinstalling the seats themselves — von Hoensbroech said.
"You also need to deal with the overhead part of it, because there are oxygen masks and then there's in-seat power that you need to rewire."
The narrower rows had put some WestJet cabins on a par with budget carriers such as Spirit Airlines, Frontier Airlines and Wizz Air, all of which sport 28-inch seats.
"At what point do we just all stand and hold onto a rubber ring handle?" asked one TikTok commenter.
However, the now-nixed configuration also carved out more space for 36 "extended comfort" seats with 34-inch pitch and 12 premium seats with 38-inch pitch, both of which yield bigger profit margins.
In December, WestJet paused a move to install the controversial seats on a big slice of its fleet amid earlier pushback, but also "to support our operations during the peak winter travel season," said spokeswoman Julia Brunet in mid-December.
At the time, she said the airline planned to continue converting to the tighter configuration in the spring.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2026.
