United Unveils New 'Slim' Seats for Coach Class

Airlines are squeezing inches where they can to add more rows and revenue to planes. And when they run out of legroom to cut, they're turning to shrinking seat size to find room.

United has some of the least roomy seats in coach, according to Routehappy, but they have been leaders in the premium economy model. The new "signature" seats United unveiled yesterday don't add legroom, but they do provide a fresher, JetBlue-like leather look to the cabin, as well as bigger seat-back pockets.

The seats were designed in collaboration with Priestmangoode, which has done cabin work in first, business, and coach classes for Thai Airways, TAM, Turkish Airlines, and Lufthansa, among others.

In addition to providing passengers newer seats to sit in, the slimmer seats help the airline cut fuel costs by decreasing the plane's weight. The seats will be rolled out on 400 aircraft flying domestic routes and flights to the Caribbean over the next 18 months.