I dread to think what will be thought up next.

The lack of leg room on aircraft doesn't inspire much confidence in the "passenger safety is the number one priority" mantra with me at the best of times anyway.

I'd be careful going down that route. The very same subject came up in another thread. Posts were removed and their posters banned.

@BYveterangirl Thanks for the warning and fair comment. What I said was just an observation as a punter, but certainly wasn't a dig and the pilots or the cabin crew :)

How are they going to get past the evacuation criteria? With this pitch, you will be able to fit almost 220 people on an A320. Has the aeroplane been certified to evacuate 220 people yet?

New Seat Design Could See Air Passengers Straddling
 

Agence France-Presse


A new design for economy class airline seating gives a new meaning to the term “cattle class” — as passengers would sit on saddle-type seats, even closer to the person in front than now.

The “SkyRider” design, unveiled at a trade fair in California, may appeal to budget airlines around the world eager to save valuable extra inches in the back end of planes.

The new seats would decrease the pitch, or distance, between seats to 58 centimeters or less, compared with an average of 70 centimeters, said Italian company Aviointeriors.

“With a much reduced seat pitch, the SkyRider preserves a comfortable position for the low fare passengers,” it said as the new seats were presented at the Aircraft Interiors Expo Americas trade fair.

The SkyRider “is intended as a new basic class. The passenger’s seating position is similar to that of a touring motor-scooter rider,” it added. “This posture permits that the overall longitudinal space occupied by the seat with the seated passenger is far less than that of a conventional, very high-density 28 inch economy class seat.

“The SkyRider has been designed and engineered to offer the possibility to even further reduce ticket prices while still maintaining sound profitability, which, even with a dual or three class seating arrangement, will allow maximum certified passenger capacity of the aircraft.”

In another cost-slashing bid, Irish budget airline Ryanair’s publicity-friendly boss Michael O’Leary has suggested he would even be prepared to introduce standing-room only sections in his planes although this would likely be banned by European safety rules.

- Aha! A new challenge for the 8.047km high club.

Seems as if the plan by the seat designer is not to get carriers to have every row in this style but to have just a few rows at the back.

If, on short haul, they replaced (I can't be bothered to do the maths with seat pitches) six regular rows of Coach with nine of these, then you go from 36 pax to 54 in the same space?

That would allow different fare grades to be given to those seats for those who want to skimp and other folks can take the regular Y. Mum and Dad can have seats and the teenagers can perch.

Some a/c might have some Biz seats up front, some Y and some Cattle. Sounds like it could work. You would have to balance total numbers and loos and doors but that's just matching the regs and the maths.

Which is basically what I said:

;)

And where exactly will all the hand baggage go when you have virtually doubled the passenger load in the cabin? Ah yes, now is the time to charge 15 pounds for it to be put in the hold.