New skyrider 'saddle' airline seats - from economy to cattle class.
Following on from our Air-Line Wars series of posts and the changes within the air travel industry, here's yet another cost cutting measure that doesn't necessarily get the thumbs up.
If you find economy class seats too cramped for comfort, well there's some bad news on the horizon.... they may be about to get even smaller.
Italian airline seat and interiors manufacturer Aviointeriors has designed a saddle-like seat with just 23 inches of seat pitch (the space between seats) – significantly smaller than the average 32 inches in economy class. Even the highest-density airline seating normally offers 28 inches of seat pitch. The seats were being unveiled at Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas 2010 in Long Beach, California this week.
Aviointeriors says its design, named the 'SkyRider', is for an ultra-high density seat designed and engineered to offer the possibility to “further reduce ticket prices” through the creation of a new basic class – below economy. The seats would allow more passengers to be crammed into aircraft. The design also allows for partial overlapping of seating between rows, allowing even more seats to fit in. This style of seating would only be suitable for short haul flights or no more than two hours duration.
Aviointeriors says the passenger's seating position is “similar to that of a touring motor-scooter rider”. It says the seats have been engineered and have reached the stage of final testing.
The announcement comes as low-cost airlines continue to seek ways to increase profits by adding ancillary charges and increasing the number of passengers they can fly on aircraft.
In July, Tiger followed Ryanair and raised the prospect of vetical seating – a proposal that would see the back 10 rows of its short-haul aircraft converted to standing room space.
In Australia, Tiger Airways' managing director Crawford Rix has said he would consider all options to keep fares low, including vertical seating, wether or not the new saddle seat will be a part of the mix remains to be seen. The main issue will be that of customer comfort, these new seating arrangements, whilst innovative will have to be comfortable if they are to be a success, or else the price for such a ticket would have to be so low that passengers simply don't care about their comfort....and so dawns a new era of air travel - from economy to cattle class.
So what's your take?
Would you fly for say $20 from city to city in one of these seats?
Or would you welcome a network of bullet trains across Australia?
Paul Blazey
