Passengers traveling on Canadian airline WestJet will soon have to pay for the ability to recline certain seats aboard a fleet of newly redesigned aircraft.

The budget airline that pioneered affordable airfare for Canadian travelers confirmed to ABC News that it is "reconfiguring all 43 acquired aircraft that are currently all-economy" from defunct airlines Swoop, Lynx and Sunwing.

The redesign, which was first announced last month, will do away with the recline function on standard economy seats, which will now have a "fixed recline."

The planes being refreshed account for "less than a third of our narrowbody fleet," inclusive of both Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 aircrafts, WestJet said.

"Through our guest user testing, half indicated they preferred a fixed recline, to avoid feeli

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