'Side-Slip': new airline seating

[deanm]

I can see that the airlines will be very interested: faster boarding/deplaning & pax will also always be happier with getting away/getting off more quickly.

They report up to 33% faster turnarounds (with block-boarding).

Molon Labe Side-Slip Airline Seat Improves Boarding, Middle Row

And suddenly, the middle seat will become the most desirable (extra width - presumably to accommodate the mechanism for the sliding aisle seat).

Dean

[MTOW]

It will "interesting" (to put it mildly) to see where people allocated one of these "desirable" seats place themselves after they get to their seat but boarding continues. And what happens after landing, convincing all those pax in the centre seats to stand before the cabin crew hits the "slide" button. You'll need an old style Lufthanza hostie on each flight. ("Ven I say 'Zeat beltz on', I vant to hear joost vun 'click'!!".)

The MMEL for when a sliding seat is U/S in some way would make for interesting reading as well.

[JOE-FBS]

Possibly more practical than some wild seating ideas proposed by non-technical stylists. It will be heavy at a time when the focus in economy seat design is weight and potentially have reliability problems. Making the mechanism and structure meet the 16g forwards crash tests might also be tricky or least make it even heavier.

[procede]

I'd guess you have to bring you own seat cushion, because it do not think any will fit between the sliding mechanism. Also seat pitch will have to go up due to the aft placement of middle seat. I am also not sure what the sliding mechanism adds in weight or if it will pass the crash tests.

If you want to go this way then fold up seats are probably more practical, also because then both the window and the middle seat can be seated whilst the aisle seat is folded up, instead of only the window seat with this system.

[gcal]

Block boarding is something that works in theory.
If you really try to put it into practice boarding will take longer whilst you attempt to organise it, and organise the shown seats!

[DaveReidUK]

The vendor in question has been peddling this daft idea for at least 3 years now, with no discernable signs of interest from airlines or OEMs:

Sliding seat invention could speed aircraft boarding | Plane Talking

"Expect to see it flying in summer 2016". Yeah, right.

[Denti]

If you really try to put it into practice boarding will take longer whilst you attempt to organise it, and organise the shown seats!

In my experience it does work. However not for every clientele. In my outfit we do use block boarding (boarding group boarding as we call it) and it has sped up boarding somewhat. However primarily on flights with a high percentage of business/frequent travellers. On flights with holiday travellers it takes more time at the gate to explain as passengers are unfamiliar with the process, although they tend to follow rules better than the business crowd. Some generalization here of course.

It puts a higher stress on the gate staff that has to organize it, put passengers further back in the queue until their group is up for boarding and do more boarding announcements. And of course they need to be trained in the procedures and the differences in boarding via a gate or bus/2 stairs.

Now, i have flown 737s with sliding seats, however those were used to convert a 3-3 configuration into a 2-3 business configuration with wider seats. It worked quite well, but needed some time and we had maintenance doing it as it took some strength to slide the seats in on one side and out on the other.

[Ian W]

Denti has it right. British Midland for the European shuttles would set the number of business class rows by design and during turn around the 3 - 3 configuration would become 2 -2 on their 737s for as many rows back as they had business class pax.

However, block boarding does not work unless you have a nice computer model of completely equal SLF. As soon as you have frequent fliers who the airline want to load first, family groups with children under 5 years old, a few wheelchairs etc etc it starts getting difficult.

One way that I saw used in the military was to lay out the seats in the gate area in the format of the aircraft seating with the same numbers and seat the arriving pax into their equivalent seats. Then the problem groups could be identified. When it was putting troops onto a trooper it was possible to send all A seats first in order then all E seats in in order then all B seats in and so on. We could get all the pax onto a 737 or Britannia in less than15 minutes

[Basil]

How about an evac?

[Denti]

Boarding passes for my airline have an additional item, the boarding group. Passengers get called by boarding group and only passengers of the actively called group should be accepted at the gate. And of course, the first is the preboard group of status guests, UMs, WCHx and so on.

[oblivia]

I've never quite understood the point of this. I've flown Emirates plenty, but the end result of this system seems exactly the same as any other airline: everyone boards and then you wait 10 minutes for the stragglers. Perhaps I'm missing something.

[PAXboy]

New seat designs are ten a-penny but they forget the costs of changing to a new seating and the possible impact on the resale value.

As to boarding? All the 'systems' fail because pax will no longer wait to be called. As soon as special boarding is done, they cram forward and the agents have learnt not to send them to the back of the queue. The agression shown by pax can be high - irrespective of whether there is assigned seating or not.

Pax will not go back to the dutiful lines and waiting to be called of the 1980s. New seating would make NO difference.

[er340790]

It was interesting to note that Icelandair, who operate around 23 B757s, have abandoned pre-boarding, row boarding, zone boarding etc etc etc.

Their research shows that the time-tested rugby scrum is just as fast.

"HEAVE!!!!!"

[llondel]

The only incentive for getting on early is when the space in the overhead luggage bins is in short supply. OK, so that's 99.99% of US domestic flights, but if you're going to sit in that cramped metal tube for hours, why rush? Once I had a seat in the row right by the door (international flight, not cattle class), so I just waited until pretty much everyone else had boarded before I bothered to get up and go to the gate.

[Rwy in Sight]

Originally Posted by llondel

The only incentive for getting on early is when the space in the overhead luggage bins is in short supply. OK, so that's 99.99% of US domestic flights, but if you're going to sit in that cramped metal tube for hours, why rush? Once I had a seat in the row right by the door (international flight, not cattle class), so I just waited until pretty much everyone else had boarded before I bothered to get up and go to the gate.

The overhead space is issue become increasingly important in Europe as well and it is the reason I like to board first. My father who traveled extensively during the 70's and 80's often in business follow you logic about taking his time to board but I don't know how difficult was to find space on the bins for his bag.

[thing]

but if you're going to sit in that cramped metal tube for hours, why rush?

I'm equally amused when people get up as soon as the a/c has docked and then spend ten minutes standing in the aisle laden with bags.

[farci]

I'm equally amused when people get up as soon as the a/c has docked and then spend ten minutes standing in the aisle laden with bags.

@thing - yes even funnier when the little old lady in Row 3 aisle then decides to stand up and put her coat on, get her bag down and smile nicely at those in line behind with steam coming out of their ears, while they try to remember their manners

[James 1077]

I'm equally amused when people get up as soon as the a/c has docked and then spend ten minutes standing in the aisle laden with bags.

I do this - but mostly because after hours of sitting down in a tiny space with my knees constantly being knocked every time the person in front fidgets slightly the opportunity to simply stand still for 10 minutes and not be harassed into moving is too good.