Seat design to make boarding planes easier: aisle seat slides over middle seat 2 make aisle roomier

[Liberal_in_LA]

Boarding an airplane is usually a bit of a hassle. You’re cramped, and there’s barely any room to get to the overhead bins.

But a new seat design could help solve that problem. It’s called the Side-Slip Seat and the idea is pretty simple.

The aisle seat basically slips over the middle seat during loading and unloading. It then slides back and snaps into place.

The design allows for wider aisles and more space for movement.

The seats also have a staggered approach, giving passengers more living space, according to the company. The middle seat also gets a little love, with a wider base.

http://www.wxyz.com/news/seat-design-aims-to-make-boarding-planes-easier

pics from dailymail

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3246858/The-radical-sliding-seat-make-boarding-flights-far-faster.html

When the sliding seats are fully folded up, boarding efficiency is improved by 4.5 minutes during random boarding and a full 6.7 minutes—or 33 percent-- for blocking boarding.

[Fearless]

1. Hell of a reason to avoid middle seats!

[pinboy3niner]

3. They'll do in a pinch

[valerief]

9. Bwahaha! You got that right!

[geek tragedy]

2. I wonder how comfortable the sliding seats are. nt

[brush]

4. Ahhh . . . no one can sit in the aisle and middle seat while the aisle seat is over the middle seat

That means two people can't sit until all the boarding and bin storage is finished.

Where do those two passengers stand while they're waiting?

And how does that make boarding faster?

[JimDandy]

6. It really seems to be useful only if

Last edited Thu Sep 24, 2015, 03:15 AM - Edit history (1)

strict back-to-front boarding is used.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. airlines tried window seaters board first. I guess it didn't work out

Probably families like to board together

[FreakinDJ]

8. Exactly what I was thinking

This dumb idea is a non-starter

[SheilaT]

13. My thought exactly.

Although I suppose the airlines could go to boarding all window seats first, then the middle, and then the aisle seats. Of course, those travelling together, say families, might find this boarding pattern inconvenient.

[MisterP]

5. ... will be available only in economy plus

they HAVE to make flying miserable, or else people wouldn't spring for upgrades

[Travis_0004]

7. I doubt you will see this

Airlines dont care about boarding time.

Most of the time they know how long boarding takes and if boarding takes longer they can just start earlier. Seldom is boarding time delaying a flight from taking off.

What planes do care about is weight, and I doubt these seats are lighter than traditional designs.

Heavier seats burn more fuel and cost more money. Airlines have gone to great lenghts to cut weight, and I dont think these seats provide a large enough benefit.

[Liberal_in_LA]

12. international flights.. it reaches a point where they are intercom

Telling people to sit down. Boarding takes forever as people remove their jacketsvand slowly fold them and put them away.

[SheilaT]

14. Actually, they do care about boarding time.

I'm a former airline employee. I can tell you that every single minute of a delay in departure or arrival had to be assigned to some particular group. Ticket counter, gate, baggage loading, fueling, and so on. It may not seem like it to the average passenger, but the delays really do matter to the airline.

Oh, and I take personal pride in the fact that in a bit over ten years as a ticket counter agent, I took one and only one counter delay under circumstances that had there been two of us on the counter rather than only one, we'd have still had a delay. Once and only once. Yeah, airlines really do care about delays, not matter how it feels to the passenger.

[pinboy3niner]

10. Gives new meaning to a late passenger asking the gate "Can you squeeze me in?"

[Orrex]

15. Air France tried this, but the seat was discovered to grab people's asses at random

That's why they rejected the wild goose chaise.