Standing Seats

[concordino]

A Chinese genius with too much greed or time on his hands is asking Airbus to add 40% capacity to their A320.. so more people can afford to fly :}

Here is the aricle as it appeared on Flight Global's Website.


China's Spring looks at standing only seats on aircraft
By Leithen Francis

Privately-owned Chinese low-cost carrier Spring Airlines has spoken to Airbus about adding standing-seats on its Airbus A320s so it can have 40% more passengers on board.

Zhang Wuan, an official at the Shanghai airline who works closely with the CEO, says: "We are planning to have standing seats" and have had "initial discussions with the Airbus side to see if the safety question can be" addressed.

"We want to have it so more people can afford to fly," says Zhang, adding that the carrier estimates it can fit 40% more passengers on board its A320s.

The standing seats will reportedly look like a bar stool and have a safety strap.

Zhang says Spring today has 13 aircraft but is adding two or three more this year.

Next will be Ryanair dumping their 737's for a major Airbus order if they manage to approve it...:D

[400drvr]

Why worry about a lap belt. I'm sure the bar stool once you've been impaled will be all the support you'll need.:ok:

[Fitter2]

If it was good enough for landing on the moon 40 years ago, what's the problem?

[FE Hoppy]

Don't see a problem with it. Having sat on my case in the cramped space between two carriages for 3 hours on a UK train I imagine a standing seat would be much more comfy.

[cockney steve]

What a fantastic business opportunity! :)

If it were left to you conservative stick-in -the-muds, we'd still be bombing about in Wright Flyers.

Now ,use some imagination! Imagine the interior divided into "stalls" each equipped with a series ofKarabiner-type hooks.

Passengers are required to rent a harness (revenue :) ) stand in a stall, clip onto vacant hook , pull tension strap -and voila! the pax are packed in like sides of meat in a cold-store....there would also be scope to hire waist-belts and support-"saddles" which would plug into the stall-walls. The individual stalls would accommodate ~6 -8 Pax and be structurally strong, thus increasing survivability in the inevitable "incidents" The utilitarian interior would not weigh much more than conventional, upholstered seating.
I doubt a full load of Pax would reach the Max load capacity of the aircraft.

Sorry, Mr O'Leary, this is all copyright. Royalties in a large brown envelope, please. :}

[BOAC]

I believe internal USSR services trailed this decades ago

[Ancient Mariner]

I've been standing up for takeoffs in China twice when they realised that there was a lavatory where our seats, according to our boarding cards, should have been. Nothing new.
Per

[makrider]

What a Genius !!!!

Very Bad :=:=:=

Mak

[chevvron]

Gibair used the system back in the early 80's; kids standing in front of their parents who were seated (Viscount). In fact I used it going to the Shetlands in '72; the captain apologised for there being no jump seat on the flight deck and told me to stand behind his seat for takeoff and landing (Viscount again)

[unimuts]

Cant believe Ryanair haven't pursued this idea. :confused:

This seems to be right up there street, just what would fit into there company profile.

Uni

[Xeque]

Stop it you lot!! You'll be giving MOL ideas.

[stepwilk]

Last time this subject came up, a year or three ago, it turned out to be a myth that a Wall Street Journal reporter (as I remember) foolishly bought into. I doubt there's any truth to it this time either.

[Capetonian]

I recall that many years ago, perhaps 25 or so, El Al evacuated a large number of a lost tribe of black Jews from Ethiopia. I think they got about 800 people into a 747 with the seats removed.

EDIT : Just googled it. It was called Operation Solomon and 'There has probably been as many, if not more, in the smaller upper deck of the -200
Remember El Al squeezed 1087 people onto a 747-200 back in 1991 during an evacuation from Ethiopia. It was in 1991 and 14,000 Falashas were airlifted from Ethipia to Israel.

Project Open Sky > 747-400 upper deck certification (http://forum.projectopensky.com/lofiversion/index.php?t34616.html)

[angels]

After my first and only internal flight in China in the early 1980s I realised that colonic irrigation was an expensive alternative....:}

[smala01]

Watch out - there is a poll on the Ryanair website about standing seats right now!

Smala01

[ExXB]

More free advertising from 'him'.

Seriously. MOL's B737s already have the maximum capacity allowed based on the number of exits and number of flight attendants.

If he really wants to increase capacity by 40% he is going to have to add a few more doors and hire a few more FAs.

Not very likely IMHO

[Load Toad]

He no doubt read the thread on here first and thought 'Oh that'll create some publicity...'

As for China - I suspect those stories are from over 10 - 15 years ago, recent years in China - new airports, new 'planes, new airlines - not at all what it was like 20 years ago.