Writers blast 'airline seating from hell': One calls for law to ban plan detailed in patent filing
A French company’s patent application lays out a way for squeezing more passengers onto airplanes. However, those who might potentially use it aren’t enthused.
Among other techniques, the so-called “economy class cabin hexagon” reverses the middle seat and eliminates armrests, according to the Portland Oregonian and USA Today.
The headline of the Oregonian article about the Zodiac Aerospace scheme calls it “airline seating from hell.”
The chief of Ireland-based low-cost air carrier Ryanair has also suggested charging passengers to use toilets as a cost-cutting measure, notes an article about the Zodiac seating plan in the U.K. newspaper the Mirror.
Zodiac says in a press release that the plan provides more leg room and makes it easier to enter and exit the plane because the seat bottoms flip up like movie-theater seats.
On the down side, the plan requires passengers to look each other in the face, Wired reports. “We were horrified a few months ago at Airbus’ patent for a virtual reality helmet to mask the pain of being airborne in economy. Now it sounds like a decent idea,” Jordan Golson writes.
Christopher Elliott, who writes the syndicated Travel Troubleshooter column, has called for lawmakers to ban the plan, the Oregonian article notes.
“When I see a seat concept like this, my first thought is: There ought to be a law against it,” he wrote. “I mean, shouldn’t we have minimum seat standards in the United States? We already have rules for how you treat dogs in the cargo hold—why not for people?”
CTV News, NPR and Stuff.co.nz also have stories.
