YET again a story has surfaced of an airline trying to get approval for a standing section on a plane. Previously the idea was mooted by Michael O’Leary, the boss of Ryanair—although that was probably more attention-seeking than serious proposal. Now reports suggest that Spring Airlines, a Chinese budget carrier, is trying to get approval for standing posts, to which passengers could be strapped, presumably in a similar fashion to a Wall of Death fairground ride, although the airline might want to think of a better name than that.
It is doubtful that standing seats would get approval from regulators. But such stories clearly strike a chord with world-weary flyers, who feel that for those at the back of the plane, service is spiralling downwards.
By coincidence, this morning Gulliver met with Acumen Design Associates, the firm behind Etihad’s “residences”. These three-room suites for the super-rich, which can be found at the front of the carrier’s A380s and come complete with a butler, look like they may redefine what airlines think of as first class. As business class gets plusher, with lie-flat seats becoming standard, old-fashioned first-class cabins are being phased out. After all, why pay more unless the service is significantly better? Indeed Acumen reckons that super business-class, as it is called, now accounts for a third of seat manufacturers’ revenue. So the only way for carriers to differentiate themselves at the highest end is by providing ever-greater opulence.
But what, then, does the future really hold for cattle class? The firm is also working on designs for back half of the cabin. One such has adjacent seats that alternately face forward and backward (see picture, right). This, in theory at least, means that two passengers can share an arm rest without coming into contact with one another. It also allows elongated headrests to make sleeping easier. (Travelling when facing backwards on a plane is not the same nauseating experience it can be in a car or train because, other than at take-off and landing, there is little sensation of moving in a particular direction while in the air.) Nonetheless, because carriers could fit an extra seat into the space the design saves, it has been derided as just another way for carriers to squeeze a few more sardines into the can.
There are other changes in the air. Wireless technology, which will eventually replace in-flight entertainment systems, will make a big difference to cabin design. There is currently a mass of wiring in a plane seat, not to mention a huge box under passengers’ feet, which is designed to deliver us out-of-date sitcoms and a film that we watched on Netflix last week. With Wi-Fi, this could all be replaced with a light high-definition screen or, indeed, our own tablets. This will lead to much thinner seats, which might be arranged like those in a train carriage, with families in blocks of four facing one another. As new alloys become available and fuselages lighter and stronger, larger windows, again perhaps modelled on a train's, also become possible (see top picture).
All of this means that airlines will have to make a decision. Do they want to use advances in design and technology to provide better premium-economy seating? Or do they want to squeeze more people onto planes and compete on price? Ultimately that will depend on what the market demands. Expect more attempts at cheap standing-seats then. In fact, there is class below standing that the airlines haven’t yet explored. Those ultra-high-net-worths in their suites at the front of the plane could no doubt have use for personal man-servants. Perhaps it is time to introduce work-your-passage class?
Correction: Etihad's suites have three rooms, not two as we first wrote
