Remember when your plane ticket included a meal, a spacious seat, and no extra charges for where you sat? For many Canadian travellers, the golden age of air travel feels like a distant memory, replaced by a complex menu of add-on fees for services that were once standard.
The Golden Age of Aviation Nostalgia
Henry Tenby, 61, a lifelong aviation enthusiast, recalls a very different flying experience from his childhood journeys in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Flying from Vancouver to Ottawa to visit his grandparents, he cherished the huge panoramic windows and spacious seats. Back then, you could walk up to an airport ticket counter, sometimes just hours before departure, and select your preferred seat—always a window for Tenby—without paying a dime beyond the ticket price.
"The good old days were better," Tenby said, reflecting on the lost lustre of flying. While he acknowledges that airfares are often cheaper today, he, like many passengers, laments the erosion of amenities included in the basic fare. The experience has been slowly unbundled over decades, with passengers absorbing each change, often with little more than a grumble.
The Shrinking Seat and Passenger Pushback
One of the most tangible changes is the aircraft seat itself. Seat pitch—the distance from one point on a seat to the same point on the seat in front—has shrunk from an average of around 35 inches in the 1970s to about 30 inches for most airlines today. Those few inches, or roughly two and a half centimetres each, significantly impact personal space and comfort.
This issue came to a head recently when WestJet Airlines Ltd. faced intense backlash over a plan to reconfigure nearly two dozen of its planes. The changes would have added six more seats per aircraft, reducing spacing by about two inches and making the seats non-reclining. A viral video of a passenger squeezing into the tighter space amplified public outrage.
Listening to the Customer: A Rare Reversal
In a notable reversal, WestJet's chief executive, Alexis von Hoensbroech, announced on Friday, January 19, 2026, that the airline would backtrack on the controversial plan. "We will always listen, and we will do what’s right for Canadians, what’s right for our guests," von Hoensbroech stated, citing data and passenger feedback from the initial rollout.
The Calgary-based airline now must obtain an engineering certificate before it can begin converting the affected 180-seat aircraft back to 174-seat layouts. WestJet has not yet provided a timeline for completing this work. This episode stands in stark contrast to the myriad other fees—for baggage, priority boarding, and seat selection—that have become permanent fixtures across the industry.
While the revolt over seat space forced one airline to listen, it highlights a broader truth: the bundled, service-oriented flight of Henry Tenby's youth has given way to an à la carte model where every perk has its price, fundamentally reshaping the Canadian flying experience.
