RyanAir aisle seat passengers are at a major disadvantage!

Ryanair allows only one small bag free of charge with their cheapest tickets. The rule is that bag has to be small enough to fit under the seat in front of you. Any bigger bag you’ve to pay extra and buy a cabin bag allowance to use overhead luggage storage space or pay even more to check them in.

However I have spotted a major issue with this model.

Due to the way seats are designed in Ryanair B737s, those sitting in aisle seats are at a disadvantage. The width of the space ahead is much smaller than what passengers sitting in the window seat and middle seat get. Refer images below.

Above: My small bag takes entire space under the seat in aisle seat, can't stretch my legs in

Below: Same bag under middle seat- lots of space left

This essentially means if you get a window or middle seat you might be able to carry a slightly bigger bag and keep them under the seat in front of you, while those sitting in aisle seats (C or D) end up finding it impossible to keep their bag under the seat in front of them. If they try to use overhead space, the crew may force them to pay.

Another challenge with reduced space is there will be no room to keep your legs. In the image above I had no room to keep my leg, but if I was seated in A or B, I could have kept my bag and stretched my legs as well.

Ryanair should accept this deficiency and be more generous with those who get aisle seats. As a passenger I don’t have control on seat allocation unless I cough up 8 Euro or more per seat for a seat selection option. Me getting assigned an aisle seat and having less space compared to someone sitting beside me is NOT my fault.

Easyjet also follows the same rule. However Easyjet uses A320 and their seating design doesn’t have this issue. Space under the seat is uniformly split.

Related: 2019 Ryan Air Southend-Dublin experience * 2015 Ryanair experience * European airlines compared * Wizzair experience *