Featured Image Credit: 1OFF Media
Topics: Travel, Plane Etiquette
Anish Vij
Passengers are divided by a new seating design for airliners and the idea is quite something.
There's no secret that most airlines will try to squeeze as many passengers onto a plane as possible.
Who can forget the controversial suggestion by Ryanair's boss, Michael O'Leary, to make a standing section on flights.
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For £1 though, it did attract a lot of suiters.
However, this new double-decker design was shared online in 2022 and it's not what you'd expect.
While the AirBus A380 is large enough to have two floors, this concept is completely different.
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Similar to a bus, the Chaise Longue Economy Seat project would be one seat, on top of another... on a plane.
The higher row of seats are placed above and are accessed by climbing up a couple of steps, a bit like a bunk bed, while the lower seat then sits behind and partially underneath this, with a passengers legs going in the space underneath.
It all looks very cozy.
Initial reactions to the design were less than enthusiastic, with people piling on with everything from genuine safety concerns to the more prosaic, such as how anyone taller than 5ft 1ins could be comfortable in such a setup.
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People took to Reddit share their thoughts on the seats.
One wrote: "Imagine some crazy turbulence and your legs get snapped, or you have to get off the plane in a hurry. Seems incredibly dangerous"
Another was more blunt, posting: "You could also fit more people into a jet by blending them into a fine slurry before boarding."
Nonetheless, creator of the design - Alejandro Núñez - has come to its defence after a new design was revealed.
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He said: “People can talk and they always hate innovation in some ways. Most of the times when they show you something new, everyone hates it at first, they’re scared of change.
"But the more you show it, and the more you develop it, and the more they see it, the more they get used to it.”
Grinding people down into accepting something through repeated exposure isn't quite the same as convincing them to like it, but you can't argue with commercial interest.
Airlines are indeed interested in the design, which has been called the 'Chaise Longue'.
The idea is that the seat would be in the centre aisle of larger aircraft, it would then be flanked by regular seating by the windows.
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Not for me, thanks.