Airline mulls standing seats because planes aren’t squished enough

Airline mulls standing seats because planes aren’t squished enough
By Hannah Edensor


An airline is considering drastic measures to make flying cheaper for consumers, but are ‘standing seats’ really something people would consider?

As Aussies are well aware, given our distance from the rest of the world, long-haul flights aren’t fun. In fact, they’re often cramped and exhausting, so why on earth would we want to take away seats from the experience?!

According to news.com.au, budget airline VivaColombia claims to be very interested in this extreme solution to both price and space issues of airlines.

“There are people out there right now researching whether you can fly standing up,” VivaColombia’s founder and Chief Executive William Shaw told the Miami Herald.

“We’re very interested in anything that makes travel less expensive.”

But it’s not the first time standing room only has been something the AV industry has mulled over.

The 'SkyRider'. Credit: Traveller

The ‘SkyRider’. Credit: Traveller

In 2003, Airbus got the ball rolling on the possibility of standing room flights, with a design for a vertical seat that would allow passengers to stand while still strapped in, per news.

In 2010, Irish budget airline, Ryanair, was prepared to offer tickets as low as $7 for anyone willing to stand on flights.

The airline’s Chief Executive Michael O’Leary put forward the concept of Airbus’ vertical seats for special sections on planes, however never came to fruition as both British and European aviation authorities were against it.

And in the same year, Italian seat design company, AvioInteriors, came up with the ‘SkyRider’, a seat that passengers could ‘perch’ on.

The design for the SkyRider allowed for just 58cm between seats, meaning more people could be squished and squashed onto the plane. Thankfully, this design never got off the ground.

SkyRider model

SkyRider model. Credit: StackExchange

Per news, even Chinese carrier Spring Airlines discussed introducing vertical seats as recently as two years ago.

And according to Colombia’s Civil Aviation Director Alfredo Bocanegra, VivaColombia’s standing seat idea might follow in the footsteps of previous attempts.

“People have to travel like human beings,” Bocanegra said on Colombian radio, per news.

“Anyone who has ridden on public mass transit knows that it’s not the best when you’re standing.”

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