Unfortunately we don't live in a world where markets really get to rule. Rather, what marketers, executives, and stockholder think is what rules. I would love to find a situation someday where there really was a true option for a wider seat. An airline, heck even a class of service, on an airline that serves all markets with equal service (and not just some one off flying to a select few destinations once a day) but that simply had wider seats. Even if there was a proportional increase in price. but it doesn't exist. Sure you can buy first class, but that is almost never offered at a comparable level to coach seats - it is usually well over twice what you can buy that same coach seat for, with far less than twice the space. Where it HAS come close - i.e. those airlines which have a true premium economy (wider seats) and don't charge an excessive premium, it has in fact done quite well for them. So there is demand there. now how do you get the market to deliver such a product?