Cheap fares, including cheap airplane tickets and cheap vacation packages are great ways for airlines to attract more passengers. The challenge is how to keep tickets cheap and even make them cheaper. An Italian aircraft seat manufacturer, Aviointeriors, believes it has the answer with its introduction of stand-up airplane seats at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas trade show in September.
When Ryanair first mentioned the possibility of selling stand up seats the very idea was dismissed as simply a marketing ploy. Not any longer. The new stand-up seat is being called the SkyRider and experts are starting to seriously consider this concept.
The easiest way for airlines to increase revenue while keeping fares cheap is by adding more passengers to the same sized planes. As many frequent fliers will tell you, airlines have added rows of seats to many planes to the point where passengers seem to almost be sitting in each others laps.
With SkyRider stand-up seats even more rows can be added. Currently most coach seats have 31 to 32 inches of pitch, which refers to the distance between one point in the seat and the same point in the seat in the next row. Some discount airlines have reduced seat pitch to 28 inches. The SkyRider seats will have 23 inches or less, depending on how it is installed by airlines.
Before stand-up seating could be installed in planes safety concerns about emergency evacuations from planes will have to be addressed. Experts in cabin interior engineering from Boeing and Airbus discussed the stand-up seat during a panel presentation at the show. While both experts expressed skepticism about the seats marketability, neither dismissed the concept out of hand.
Ryanair, a large European discount carrier, has announced that it hopes to win regulatory approval to put rows of stand-up seats, priced lower than normal coach seats, in the rear sections of its planes. There has been speculation that Spirit Airlines might also be interested in looking at this seating.
The stand-up seat is being targeted for shorter haul flights of two hours or less. Aviointeriors believes that stand-up seats can appeal to passengers on flights up to four hours, if the price is low enough.
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