Get More Acquainted With Your Knees as Boeing Reworks 737

Feeling unloved already, coach passengers may have more to grouse about as Boeing Co. shoehorns 11 more seats into the economy cabin of a new 737 model.

In an airline industry where every square inch of space is mined for revenue, the big squeeze is on in the back of the plane. Carriers are changing the shape of lavatories, streamlining galley areas where they store drink carts and adding “slimline” seats with thinner padding to shave centimeters off the distance between rows.