WestJet announced Friday it is canceling a new aircraft layout plan that involved adding more seats to some of its planes.

WestJet, a partner of Delta Airlines and Canada's second-largest carrier, said it added the seats to ease ticket prices. Instead, it fueled passenger frustration.

A video of a couple crammed into the seats of their WestJet flight took off on social media, with over one million views since their daughter, Amanda Schmidt, posted it about three weeks ago.

"If they're selling a seat for a human, it should fit a human," Schmidt told CBS News. "It's inhumane, basically, to make people travel like this."

WestJet said it had added an extra row of seats to nearly two dozen aircraft since last October, claiming it would help bring down ticket prices. The reconfiguration removed about two inches of space between rows.

In its about-face Friday, WestJet said in a news release it will end "densified seating" and "return to its prior standard seat pitch for economy cabins on these recently reconfigured aircraft by removing one row of seats."

"WestJet tried seat pitches that are popular with many airlines around the globe as they serve to provide affordable airfares," WestJet CEO Alexis von Hoensbroech said in a statement. "It's in our DNA to try new products. At the same time, it is just as important to react quickly if they don't meet the needs of our guests."

WestJet isn't the only airline trying to fit more people on board. Spirit Airlines has long had seats that don't recline, while Frontier Airlines advertises that its seats are "pre-reclined."

There are no requirements in the U.S. for airplane seat size or the space between seats.

"The low-cost carriers are actually trying to cram as many people in an airplane as they possibly can," former National Transportation Safety Board chair Robert Sumwalt, a CBS News transportation safety expert and analyst, said.

According to Sumwalt, having tight seating could potentially cause issues in an emergency situation.

"It certainly stands to reason that if you decrease the amount of space between the seats, it's going to make it more difficult for someone to get out in the event of an emergency," Sumwalt said.

WestJet does not have a timeline for when the work will be completed. It said impacted aircraft will have their seating reduced from 180 to 174 seats.