Despite the growth of airline passengers in terms of body weight and required space on board, British Airways began the process of adding one extra seat per row to some of its existing aircraft, thus shrinking passenger personal space even further.

Currently, BA’s Boeing 777 planes have nine seats that stretch across the rows of the economy class. By 2018, there will be 10 seats in each row, adding a total of 52 seats to each plane based at London’s Gatwick Airport. After the Gatwick fleet has been adjusted, BA will perform the same adjustments to its fleet at London’s Heathrow Airport. This change will mainly affect long-haul flights to destinations such as New York or Hong Kong, where comfort is a priority among passengers.

BA defends these changes by promising cheaper fares to come with more seats on each plane, as well as personal in-flight entertainment systems for each seat.

Although this may be a shock to BA’s frequent flyers, the 10-across configuration already exists on board some of the airline’s competitor brands such as Emirates and Air New Zealand.