Enlarge / You can explore a 3D model of the chaise longue economy seat.
Chaise longue economy seat
Regular travelers know only too well how uncomfortable airplanes have become in recent years. Seats are narrower and offer less legroom than in years past, and with prices soaring thanks to the perfect storm of inflation and corporate greed, flying economy feels more like a form of modern-day torture that it is to endure is considered such a luxurious experience. Add to that the terrifying double-decker and standing room configurations that airlines and designers are trying to sell to the paying public, and the picture for the future of air travel only gets bleaker.
Take the recent buzz surrounding designer Alejandro Núñez Vincente’s so-called chaise longue setup, which made its second, updated appearance at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg this week. We may have just reached the peak of uncomfortable airplane seating.
Don’t you believe us? The media reports what happens when someone farts in these seats. But before we announce the end of people-centric, economical air travel, or wring our hands at how many people are crammed in the skies in flying beef jerky makers, we decided to do some research and find out why these designs aren’t likely to take off (pun totally intended).
A variety of configurations
The standing seat has been around for more than 20 years. Airbus pioneered the idea of standing seats and applied for a patent in 2015. In 2019, an Italian design house called Aviointeriors introduced an upright bicycle seat called the Skyrider, in which each row of seats was attached with rods to the seats on the plane’s interior. While it caused a lot of resentment in the travel industry and inspired some low-cost airline CEOs to install such seats (we mean you, Ryanair and Spring Airlines), these seats never blew up and just won’t fly.
The idea of stacked seating has been around for many years, with patents dating back to 1948. Some include everything from outward-facing seats to bunk beds, honeycomb-style seating, and seats that look more like yoga manuals than seating configurations. The latest is the double-decker chaise lounge setup, which resurfaced this week.
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Designer Alejandro Núñez Vicente relaxes in the 2022 version of his chaise longue economy seat.
Alejandro Nunez Vicente
FAA regulations
Here in the US, the Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for regulating all civil aviation. There are numerous regulations that relate directly to seating and emergency exit access, the number of flight attendants required per passenger, and the physical requirements that seats must meet under “dynamic emergency landing conditions,” but none of these regulations specifically address this issue comfort or personal space in airplane seats.
However, if airlines do decide to try double-decker or standing seats, those configurations must withstand and comply with stringent (albeit old) FAA standards, such as this part of the aforementioned emergency landing dynamic conditions regulation:
National Archives
With rows of seats stacked, the heads of passengers in the lower tiers are dangerously close to the seats of passengers in the upper tiers, which could result in serious injury in the event of an emergency manoeuvre. Ditto for standing seats as these are very close together front to back and passengers’ heads would be much closer to the fuselage of an airplane when using a standing seat.
Added to this is the political dispute over the seats on the plane. Late last year, the FAA opened a session for comments on in-flight seat sizes and was inundated with more than 26,000 comments before it was shut down, and major airlines threw a tantrum at the idea of minimum seat sizes.
Just last month, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth revisited the issue and introduced S.1765, legislation intended to curb the continuing shrinkage of airplane seats. Duckworth is a distinguished, retired lieutenant colonel in the Army National Guard and the first woman with a disability to be elected to the US Congress.
According to the Washington Post, the bill has the support of pilot and flight attendant unions, as well as passenger and medical advocacy groups, and would require a reassessment of 2018 evacuation rules, which call for evacuation of passengers within 90 seconds. Current FAA testing is conducted with able-bodied passengers with no carry-on baggage. The FAA administrator admitted these tests were “useful but not necessarily definitive.” The new bill would require the FAA to review and test how easily people of different heights, heights, ages and mobility could evacuate a plane quickly and safely, and add considerations about darkness, smoke and carry-on bags. The bill is currently in committee.