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Back in 2012 I flew from Tenerife South airport to London Stansted with Ryanair airline. All the tickets for this flight were sold out. But 3rd and 4th row on this Boeing 737-800 were empty (12 empty seats) 1 & 2 row are for customers who paid for the seats. The interesting think that no one was allowed to seat there. One lady before departure occupied one of the empty seat in the 4th row. Cabin Crews told her that aircraft will not depart unless she will go back to her seat. At first lady refused to go back and started complaining. We were waiting for her to change the seat and then we departed. I did ask the steward why is there two empty rows but had no clear explanation from him

Uraflight
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because any answer is purely conjecture; there is no "correct" answer. – abelenky Mar 08 '18 at 15:18
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    @Uraflight Travel Stack Exchange is usually the better place for these kinds of questions. Most users here are pilots, aerospace geeks, and technicians, not flight attendants/stewards or gate agents. A closely related (albeit not duplicate) question is here: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/58190/ , and you may find the following questions also helpful https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/48827/ or https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/14828/ – Cody P Mar 08 '18 at 15:22
  • @abelenky: There must be a correct answer from Ryanair. – Transistor Mar 08 '18 at 18:41
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    @CodyP While I agree this is pure conjecture at this point, there are aerospace related reasons, specifically weight and balance. This question may be relevant to the OP: Are passengers really not allowed to change seats before take-off due to weight and balance? – user71659 Mar 08 '18 at 19:50

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Were these emergency exit rows?

Seat pitch on low cost airlines is too small to allow an emergency evacuation within the required 90 seconds with regular seat pitch in the exit rows. Therefore, the seat pitch is larger there, which makes a world of a difference for tall people. Low cost airlines have decided to monetize those few more inches of leg room and charge extra for sitting there.

If no passenger on that flight was willing to pay the extra fee, those airlines which pride themselves on treating their passengers with the utmost contempt keep these emergency exit row seats free even if the plane is fully booked on all other seats.

Peter Kämpf
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    I'm voting for this, though the exit rows are 16 and 17. Seatguru shows the Ryanair aircraft have designated rows 1-5 as premium seats with extra legroom and priority boarding. Those seats will go empty if no one pays the extra €17/£15. It may have been only rows 1-4 were premium in 2012, and the cost could have been more. – Gerry Mar 08 '18 at 19:11
  • They were 3rd and 4th row . The flight was operated in 2012. At that time only 1 and 2 row were a premium seats – Uraflight Mar 08 '18 at 19:16
  • Beyond that, their Flight Attendants are probably told, when we tell you that these seats are blocked off, keep them blocked off regardless. Even if there was no valid reason that *those* seats needed to be the ones blocked off (say, if total weight was the issue; balance ISN'T it on a full 737-800), the FA's probably don't have the discretion to say "today, you can change seats", since tomorrow, you might have to be told that you can't. And it's easier to make blanket rules than to let people think & adapt to the situation. – Ralph J Mar 08 '18 at 20:41