Both Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and rival Airbus have generated thousands of orders for their new single-aisle passenger jets, with projected deliveries of the new Airbus A320neo starting in late 2016 and the Boeing 737 MAX entering service in 2017. Both planes feature new, more fuel-efficient engines, but the aircraft makers also aim to improve the economics for the airlines by stuffing more seats into the cabin.

Boeing acceded to a request from Ryanair Holdings PLC (NASDAQ: RYAAY), Europe’s largest low-fare airline, to add 11 seats to the 189 already planned for the 737 MAX 8 to create a model called the 737 MAX 200. Ryanair placed an $11 billion order for 100 of the new planes in December.

If Boeing’s got one, then Airbus needs one too, and sure enough, in early March the European maker received certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency to add 15 seats to the 180 already approved for the A320neo, bringing the passenger capacity to 195.

Because the A320neo is shorter than the 737 MAX 200, Airbus almost certainly will have to use a 27-inch seat pitch to stuff all those seats into the plane. Seat pitch is the distance between the plastic back of the seat you’re sitting in and the plastic back of the seat in front of you. Airbus claims wider seats give passengers roughly equivalent space. Ryanair expects the 737 MAX 200 to retain its current 30-inch seat pitch, but a decrease to 29 inches is not out of the question.

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In response to a query from industry analysts at Leeham News and Comment, an Airbus spokesperson wrote in an email:

Of course, one needs to put everything into perspective. An A320 in a theoretically possible 195 seats layout would be for special ‘high-density’ configurations for airlines who want it for certain markets with certain business models. But obviously if a passenger pays a full-fare mainline ticket he or she would not expect to be sitting at 27-inch pitch. On the other hand, if a backpacker just wants to ‘get around’ at the lowest possible cost, then even at 27-inch pitch (in a new-gen-seat 18-inch wide in an A320) that will likely be much more comfortable than the bus or train they subsequently take to their sightseeing tour. In short, nobody is forcing anybody to do anything — it’s just a question of what’s possible to offer customers. And the market — i.e., you the passenger, at the end of the day — is free to decide what they buy.

Right.

Leeham also notes the safety issue involved with stuffing so many seats into the A320’s cabin. By regulation an airplane must be able to be evacuated in 90 seconds. It is questionable whether that can be achieved.

Air transport blog Runway Girl Network (RGN) cites a claim from Airbus that it can show a 195-seat A320 being evacuated in 90 seconds using a simulation without using real people. One long-time flyer told RGN, “Watch what happens in the real world when [passengers of size and] old people try to get out carrying their bags of medicine! The current race to squeeze more and more seats into a finite space is plain stupidity.”

A Federal Aviation Administration official told RGN that evacuation capability on new seating configurations “must be shown by demonstration or analysis.”

A truncated safety evaluation scheme coupled with even less leg room. Now that’s progress.

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