Ryanair - What price standing?
The extravagance of seating
This sounds like a great idea in theory.
Instead of being cramped into seats with no legroom, the flight could be a fun experience, almost like a roller coaster.
According to the plans, passengers would pay between £4 and £8 to be strapped into a ‘vertical seat’ thus saving space and allowing more passengers to be crammed onboard.
O’Leary said the plan was to take out the last ten rows of seats from the back of his fleet of 250 planes, and fill this void with a standing area.
On the other side, there may be problems.
Imagine coming into an air pocket at 30,000 feet and dropping 8,000 feet in 20 seconds. Would Ryanair provide helmets for flights?
Also aviation laws say passengers must wear a seatbelt for take off and landing. Would a vertical seat belt pass safety tests?
All will be revealed next year, when safety tests are due to go ahead on these proposals.
There will be a lot of scepticism over whether or not this is another publicity stunt by O’Leary. It may well be, but the benefits are obvious.
Regular travellers could save a fortune if they opt to sacrifice their conventional seat for a standing one.
Ryanair said it would fund the scheme with a proposed £1 charge for using the toilet.
It would take ‘no-frills’ travel to a new level if the stringent safety tests give it the go ahead, but would you be willing to stand for the entire flight even if the price was right?
| Comments | Post a comment |
|
David, London 2 July 2010, 04:01PM | |
| This is a quite neat and fun idea form Ryanair. If they manage to get the safety and comfort levels right, they could be on to a winner. I personally would have no problem standing on short haul flights if it could save me ££'s. | |
| Rating (0) | |
| This might all be a publicity stunt but the idea of standing room has been mooted before by other airlines. If the comments from Ryanair's publicity department are to be believed, the airline is already in active discussions with the CAA. I do not think they would say that if it were not true. | |
| Rating (0) | |
|
John Dale 5 July 2010, 11:20AM | |
| Boeing has already rejected the idea, claiming that vertical seats would need to be heavily reinforced to not topple over like 'dominos' by the high g forces in the event of a crash. This having the knock on effect of making aircraft heavier and driving up fuel costs, it wont work. | |
| Rating (0) | |
|
Mark Smithe, Birmingham 12 July 2010, 11:30AM | |
| You can stand on a bus, and a train, so why should you not have the choice on an aircraft? Sitting down is not a fundamental right unless you are elderly or require special assistance. Besides it's only for short haul flights, and will reduce fares. No complaints from me... | |
| Rating (0) | |
|
Colin Breton, Leeds 16 July 2010, 04:09PM | |
| As wacky as O'Leary is, you have to admire his dedication in delivering innovative ideas and his attempts to drive down the cost of flying. I fear sadly that the vertical seating idea might be a flash in the pan. | |
| Rating (0) | |
|
Lucy, Cumbria 20 July 2010, 05:00PM | |
| I for one love this idea, being able to travel at a much reduced cost is very appealing, bring it on Ryan Air! | |
| Rating (0) | |
