Just when you thought economy seating on planes couldn’t get anymore cramped, Airbus has filed a patent to prove you wrong.
Designed so that passengers would literally sit on top of each other, the patent contains plans for seats to be place above a middle row of seats. From the diagram featured below, it appears this would be in the space currently taken up by overhead lockers.
The only obvious upside to the claustrophobia-inducing plans is that both levels of seats seem to be designed to fold flat, which would allow economy travellers to fully recline their seats to sleep. Still, essentially you’ll be flying in a small compartment and possibly unable to stand up unless you’re in the aisle.
Airbus has only filed the patent application at this stage, but there’s every chance this could be the future of flying.
Take a look at the plans and tell us what you think? Would you be open to the idea of stacked seating? Or is one level bad enough?