Hilary Barry weighs in on the reclining chair debate on domestic flights

TV presenter Hilary Barry has leant into the debate on when it is appropriate to recline your plane seat.

The face of Seven Sharp was not sure why anyone would need to recline on a journey shorter than a couple of hours.

The passive aggressiveness was palpable in a tweet on Monday afternoon, accompanying a picture of the passenger in question.

"People who recline their seats on domestic flights. Am I right?", she wrote, adding four additional question marks and an eye-rolling emoji for good measure.

Compressing her travel companion's cup of coffee and folding tray, the impression was she was not in favour of reclining seats. With close to 1000 likes the image clearly struck a nerve with other travellers.

Respondents dubbed the pet travel peeve "annoying and inconsiderate".

Others' sympathies leant more with the reclining passenger, saying that there could be underlying health reasons for their need to lean their chair back. Chronic pain and arthritis can make even short journeys in a confined cabin a source of pain.

It's an ongoing point of contention for short haul passengers. With limited room, means any space invader that wants a couple of degrees more comfort must take them from the passenger behind.

One ergonomics consultant went as far as to dub the feature of reclining seat as "irritating, inconvenient, self-indulgent", writing for USA Today.

One travel opine for the Gawker magazine begged for someone to "pass a law that all economy class airplane seats must be welded into a permanently upright position."

There are even sneaky hacks and gadgets aimed specifically at the problem. Knee Defenders - plastic clips designed to attach to tray-tables - stop the passenger seat in front reclining, while you're eating.

However the $30 gizmo has caused more problems than it solves. One incident in 2014 saw a plane diverted after an altercation between a passenger whose seat was locked in place and the owner of the clips.

They are prohibited by most airlines over safety concerns. Air New Zealand lists them among their concise list of banned items.

The inventor of the device, Ira Goldman, said at the time that airlines were trying to wish the problem away.

"They're selling the same space twice," he told CBC " - to me to sit down and then inviting people to put their seat backs there as well."

But should we decline the right to recline?

Even on Air New Zealand's domestic link services passengers have the option to recline. The ATR 72 prop plane fleet has a max flight time of little over 2 hours - yet the seats still recline.

If the function is there, passengers will choose to use it - particularly for late and early services, when there's little more to do than catch some shuteye while between runways.

A quick search on Seatguru or Airseatmap.com will reveal entire forums dedicated to reviewing which seats on a particular service have the best pitch. It's clearly something passengers look for.

Some airlines have done away with the issue all together.

In 2010, US low cost carrier Spirit Airlines removed reclining seats from the mid-haul A320 fleet. The decision to install "pre-reclined" streamlined the service and took it out of the hands of travellers.

The airline didn't comment on why they removed the airbus seats, which previously had a modest recline. Many speculated it had more to do with curbing passenger air rage rather than jamming more seats into already crowded cabins.

One thing's for sure - "Recline rage" is real.

Even Hilary Barry is not impervious to the feeling that passenger in front is invading your personal space. Airlines should sit up and take note.

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.