New Saddle Seats for Budget Airlines?
Aviointeriors Group, based in Italy, has unveiled a new ‘saddle seat’ they hope will revolutionise budget air travel. The seats are higher and force more weight distribution to the legs of the passenger much like some space saving seats on the London Underground and suchlike. A seat pitch of 23 inches is all that is required, with budget airlines currently having 30 inch pitches.
However, airlines won’t be able to simply replace existing seating in aircraft with these seats for a couple of reasons. The designer states these seats are only suitable for flights up to to 3 hours and many budget carriers use the same planes to fly to a variety of routes depending on the season. So fitting a plane full of saddle seats would render it unusable for a flight to Athens (at 3hr 45m) for example.
The main reason these seats are not viable is safety. Airlines wouldn’t just need to get the general concept passed by officials (which would be hard anyway), they would need to ensure extra emergency exits are available for increased passenger numbers. One commentator has already pointed out that current budget cabins are close to maximum occupancy anyway, regardless of how many more people could physically be crammed in.
I can understand this as they are all related to costs…..However I am quite perturbed that airlines such as Tiger Airways and Jetstar charge passengers who ask for seats in exit rows….. My problem is that exit rows are there for specific reasons particularly related to safety and if seats are available they should be treated as regular seats.