I'd imagine that Americans, unfortunately, are the "worst case scenario" and if the planning were done for our "here is your seatbelt extension" fat-*******s, then everything less than that is a piece of cake!

My god, some of these people have SUED for being charged twice, even though they occupied two seats ! [:@]


To expand on Craig's excellent explanation above (which covers larger aircraft), some smaller aircraft, because an individual can make more of a difference in percentage terms, actually BLOCK rows of seats forward or aft to keep the CG within range. If, for instance, there is a heavy luggage load in the back, then some aft seats may be blocked, and visa-versa.