Standing Up for Your Next Flight
Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Standing room only is about to take on a whole new meaning. At a time when many airline companies are looking for ways to make passengers more comfortable while trying to find creative ways to make a profit, there is at least one company looking to get more passengers on each flight by packing them in even tighter.
Ryanair is considering plans to put passengers in standing position during flight. Each passenger will be perched on stools with seatbelts so passengers will be in the position to buckle when the need arises.
The company currently estimates an increase of passengers on each flight to at least 50% and maybe even more. At the same time, choosing the standing room alternative will give Ryanair the ability to cut costs for those same flights by around 20%.
Ryanair is not the first company to move towards the standing room option for flights. Spring Airlines out of China has tried to find a way to cope with a growing number of passengers and flight routes with a limited number of assets (it currently only has 13 airplanes in its fleet).
There could also be additional money saving measures implemented by Ryanair to help the company cope with these economic times. The company is considering the possibility of passengers carrying their own luggage to each flight and also paying for bathroom use.
Ryanair chief executive Michael O'Leary is currently in talks with Boeing about new airplanes designed with standing rooms. The concept still has to be approved by the Irish Aviation Authority before any new fleets can be ordered.