A man in Australia is suing American Airlines after he was seated next to two obese people for a fourteen-hour flight – an ordeal which he claims caused permanent back and neck injuries.

Michael Anthony Taylor, 67, said the airline refused to let him move seats, leaving him “crouching, kneeling, bracing or standing” for much of the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.

He said his uncomfortable position during the flight exacerbated his scoliosis and caused lower and upper back injuries as well as bruising to his neck.

“I don’t hold any malice towards the people in the seats next to me - they’d paid for a ticket too,” he told Sydney’s Daily Telegraph.

“The airline could have put me in a crew seat or moved people around but they did nothing.”

Mr Taylor was in the window seat but claimed the two large passengers encroached on his space.

His lawyer said the case could lead to a push for airlines to make their economy – or equivalent - class more comfortable.

“If Michael is successful, this throws open the doors to potentially a large amount of cases against airlines and how they’ve designed their seating and how they seat passengers,” Thomas Janson, from Shine Lawyers, told the Daily Telegraph.