These days, long-haul economy in tight pitch seating is akin to torture. It is nearly impossible to get comfortable, and one runs the risk of DVT – deep vein thrombosis on very long-haul flights if you don’t get up and move about the cabin.
Airline Interiors International has an exclusive article on an innovative seating concept HERE that is a potential improvement for economy seating. We think this may be a great step forward, with innovative thinking and creativity in a design that mimics human anatomy, using the equivalent of ribs to adjust to the body sitting in the seat.
We applaud innovation by seat companies that will improve comfort, or at least relative comfort, within the smaller footprint of narrow 17-18 inch seats with ever tightening pitch. I’ve seen economy go from 34 to 32 to 30 to 29 inches between seats over my long career, and particularly dislike the narrow seating that regional jets and LCCs have introduced, all to lower seat-mile costs. Fortunately, most of my business travel is in premium classes, and I don’t have to put up with long-haul misery in the back of the bus. But for those that do, as I have been forced to on occasion, any relief would be a blessing.
Things are now to the point where it would be quite difficult, unless we had standing seats as Ryanair once proposed, to get much tighter. It is nice to see an effort to improve upon, rather than continue to decrease the size of economy seats. We wish them well, and rapid market entry and adoption by our favorite airlines.
Let’s hope the final product has more padding 🙂
Seriously?
Seat width and pitch increase are the only solution, not gimmicks like this one.