USA Today has THIS story on a new seat from Italian company Aviointeriors and it makes me cringe.  The seat system is considerably narrower in pitch and built so that a person sits more on top of it than into it.  Like you would sit in a saddle.  From the photos, it appears that the seat height is higher affording a longer “drop” for ones’ legs.  Call it a hybrid between a conventional seat and “standing room” concepts that have been bandied about.

Before anything else, let me say that I see a number of issues that might make it challenging to get such a seat certified.  How the passenger sits in a seat is a safety factor as is how they may be impacted by seats in front of them and behind them.  And accomodating that passenger so that the seat itself doesn’t injur them in a crash is also quite the challenge.  So, I don’t think this is something we’ll be seeing in the next few years. 

However, the fact that seat manufacturers are posing this design ideas kind of scares me.  One look at that seat and my knees cried a little moan of anguish.  I would find such a seat a very difficult thing to accept even on relatively short duration trips.  But clearly the seat manufacturers are hearing something from their potential customers if they’re going to spend time creating such concepts.

Low Cost Carriers not only drive ticket prices, they also drive aircraft design.  They purchase a large portion of those single aisle aircraft available and they want to pack in their passengers.  It would appear that seat manufacturers are starting to explore the idea of how pack in more passengers. 

Scrunching in even more humans on existing aircraft is a long way off, at best.  There are way too many regulatory hurdles at present but the market has driven even regulatory change in the past.  People are exploring ideas on how to fit more passengers on aircraft and the latest round of concepts look absolutely horrific to me.  But I might be horrified, in part, because I’m starting to see a glimmer of reality in these designs.

Filed under: Airline Seating by ajax
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