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Airlines Want to Stack Passengers One on Top of the Other in Coach
Double-decker airline seats may be coming soon
The future of low-cost travel may involve airlines stacking Economy passengers one on top of the other. That’s the nightmarish vision of designer Alejandro Nunez Vicente, who just won a prestigious design award for the Chaise Lounge Economy Seat, his design for two-level stacked airline seats.
The seats, which have been built as a real-life prototype but have not yet been adopted by any airlines, feature two levels of seats stacked on top of each other. Passengers climb up a small step to reach the top level. On the bottom level, passengers must endure having another seat essentially right in front of their face.
The benefit? More seats crammed onto already-crowded planes, and thus potentially lower per-seat costs. The design allows even more density of passengers than is present in current Economy cabins. Airlines love the idea of adding more seats because every additional seat added to a plane increases the amount that an airline earns for each flight.
Nunez Vicente told the New York Post that the idea started out as a college project, but it’s fast turning into reality. He has exhibited a prototype of the design at prominent airline trade shows and reportedly found investors…
