Passengers have complained that airlines often try to squeeze more seats into a plane in order to make bigger profits.

A source with China Eastern Airlines said the company had imported all its aircraft from the West where people are on average bigger, but now the company planned to reduce by about 20 the number of seats on the new Airbus 321 to enlarge the seating space.

Xia Hongshan, vice dean of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, suggested more airlines rearrange seats to provide for the comfort of larger passengers.

"China's civil airlines always have empty seats, especially in the low season. So, it is reasonable for companies to think about reducing the number of seats, even though it might not be a small investment," Xia said.

Early this year, a China Southern Airlines aircraft delayed takeoff for two hours because two passengers began fighting in a quarrel over seating space.

Chinese people were becoming fatter, Wen Weiliang, director of China Health Care Association, said.

Without larger seats, more quarrels would certainly happen, he said.

Wen cited statistics showing that nearly 20 million adults in China were overweight. In large cities, the ratio reached 30 percent.

"The Chinese are also getting taller," Wen added.

But airlines are also concerned about the profit loss that seating re-arrangement might incur because planes are usually full during the peak seasons.

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