Standing Room Only Flights May Be The Next Big Thing
How much would you be willing to pay for a place to stand on an airplane?
While "standing seats" aren't coming in the near future, the very idea is discussion-worthy. BBC News reports that the concept is "unworkable" because passangers need multiple straps to hold them in place in heavier planes. So why does the topic keep popping up?
The Golden Age of air travel seems almost like a fantasy to fliers today who trudge past the first-class curtain, or who have lined up to be squished in a shuttle that traverses half the airport tarmac to reach a parked budget jet. Air travel was once reserved for only those who had serious money to pay for the luxury. As things changed and air travel started to expand, the cost became a little more friendly and more people were put on planes.
A division was created: first class, business class, and the rest of the dredge in coach. As business class got classier and airlines fought to make their first-class service the pinaccle of luxury, packing more folks into economy was a no-brainer.
But is that really a problem? As unlikely as standing seats are, these kind of innovations are what allowed for more people to fly in the first place. If no one had ever looked at the spaces between seats and thought, "I can squish another one in there", the skies might still be reserved for a certain class of checkbook. Cheaper tickets allow more people to consider flying, although we're still a long way from air travel not being a privelege only some can afford.
Of course, in a time when the rich seem to get only richer and the poor are still poor, an airplane where the front of the plane has butlers and the back of the plane is standing room -- or, as The Economist suggets, the ones doing the butlering -- perhaps more division between classes isn't the answer. In fact, instead of trying to make first class into some kind of oasis of opulance and stuffing standing-room-only seats into coach, airlines could be trying to make one version of great seating. Nobody is reclining their seat into someone else's knees or strapped to a standing gurney, but the comfort of all passengers is made a priority.
Or maybe we'll get to a point where there is a true and inarguable division -- where those who would have traveled first class are sharing personal jets and the rest is budget airlines with multiple levels of standing passengers. Depending on this distance, this poor graduate student wouldn't be above lining up to be strapped in.
