Flyers, take note: India’s Civil Aviation Ministry just made it clear – middle seat gets both the armrest

• India’s Civil Aviation Ministry has weighed in on this issue – the middle seat gets both the armrests.
• The fight for the armrests in the middle seat during a flight has led to many online battles and debate.
• On Twitter, the Ministry wrote, “Knocking elbows sure is painful. While flying, please be unselfish in sharing the armrests with the middle seat passengers and avoid the game of elbows.”

All the frequent flyers always have one complaint at the check in counter – do not give us the middle seat. This is also why many fliers don’t mind paying extra bucks to book a seat earlier.

Why? Because it leads to a fight for the armrest. Sometimes, the fastest elbow gets the armrest and the other is left resenting the entire journey. In most cases, it puts most people in an awkward position. Now, India’s Civil Aviation Ministry has weighed in on this issue and made it official – the middle seat gets both the armrests.

Taking the conversation to Twitter, the Ministry shared this with the hashtag be a responsible traveller and wrote, “Knocking elbows sure is painful. While flying, please be unselfish in sharing the armrests with the middle seat passengers and avoid the game of elbows.”


The fight for the armrests in the middle seat has led to many online battles and debates. Haven’t we all been in this kind of a situation at least once? Between the chatty uncle or the sleepy one, both of who take the liberty to take over the armrests leav the poor middle seater with none, and clasping hands.

Now, regardless of you having reached the airport late or your policy to not pay for seats, you can travel without a hassle. Well, or maybe you can just quote the Ministry for a more comfortable flight.

The middle seat fight in flight has also been subject to a lot of memes online from all over the world. This is especially true with long flights where at least one armrest is necessary for a passengers to either sleep or even enjoy a meal in the constricted space.

It is however yet to be seen if the ministry word will be followed in letter and intent by the occupy-it-all mentality of Indian flyers.

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