Designers and airliners are attempting to sell the picture of the future travel airline, which features configurations like standing-room-only seats and double-decker planes. However, this attempt feels like a modern form of torture, as flying in economy class can be more of a bleak and less luxurious experience. Thanks to the perfect storm of corporate greed and inflation, prices have risen, offering less legroom and narrower seats than in previous years. Regular travelers know all too well how uncomfortable airplanes have become in the last few years.
At the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany this week, designer Alejandro Núñez Vincente’s Chaise Longue arrangement, known for its discomfort, has stirred up a significant commotion. It seems like we have reached the pinnacle of uncomfortable airline seating.
But before we declare the end of human-oriented economy airline travel and start digging to find out why these designs are unlikely to take off, let’s not forget just how many people are packed into these flying jerky-makers in the sky. And let’s not believe the stories running in media outlets about what happens when someone farts in these seats.
A variety of configurations
Airbus was the first to pioneer the idea of standing seats by filing a patent for them more than 20 years ago. In 2019, Italian design house Aviointeriors unveiled the Skyrider, an upright bicycle-style seat that attached poles to each row of the airplane’s interior. This concept caused plenty of angst in the travel community, as it was never taken off and airlines such as Spring Airlines and Ryanair never implemented the idea of installing these seats, despite the budgetary appeal to CEOs in the airline industry.
The double-decker Chaise Longue setup made a comeback this week. The seating arrangements now resemble more of a yoga studio than traditional seating, with honeycomb-style beds and outward-facing bunk seats. Some configurations even include everything from manuals to stacked seating, a concept that has been around for many years, dating back to 1948 with various patents.
Advertisement.
FAA regulations
In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration is in charge of regulating all civil aviation. There are plenty of rules that address the specific requirements of airplane seating, including the physical comfort and personal space of passengers. In case of an emergency landing, seats must adhere to the dynamic conditions and attendants should be present as per the number needed. Additionally, there are regulations regarding access to emergency exits and dealing directly with seating.
However, if airlines decide to try double-decker or standing seats, they will have to meet stringent FAA standards, as mentioned above, to ensure a dynamic landing emergency condition does not arise from this bit of old regulation.
By utilizing an upright seating arrangement, the distance between passengers’ heads and the aircraft’s fuselage would be significantly reduced. Both standing seats and stacked seating have a compact layout, with minimal spacing between seats from the front to the back. In the case of an emergency maneuver, the seats on the higher levels could potentially pose a grave risk of injury to the heads of passengers seated on the lower levels.
The idea of tantrum a threw carriers major and it was closed before comments, with more than 26,000 comments flooding flights on seat sizes.
Introduced last month, S.1765 is a legislation proposed by Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth to address the issue of the continuously shrinking airplane seat. Duckworth, who is the first woman with a disability to be elected to the US Congress and a retired decorated lieutenant colonel in the National Army Guard, has reopened this important matter.
The bill currently in committee is aimed at ensuring the safe and efficient evacuation of planes in various emergency situations, taking into consideration the different ages, sizes, and heights of passengers. The new bill, if passed, would require the FAA to test and consider how people with different mobility levels can safely and quickly evacuate a plane in situations such as darkness or smoke. The FAA administrator admitted that while these tests may not be definitive, they are still useful. Currently, the FAA does not conduct tests with disabled passengers or those without carry-ons. However, the proposed bill has the backing of medical advocacy groups, passenger unions, flight attendants, and pilots, and it calls for a reassessment of evacuation rules by 2018. According to The Washington Post.