- One of the world’s largest airline seat makers, Zodiac Seats France, has applied for a patent to reconfigure the seats on airplanes so that every other passenger in a row is facing toward the back of the plane.
- That means that in a row of three fliers, the seat by the window and the seat by the aisle face toward the front of the plane while the middle seat faces toward the back.
- To make it easier to exit, the seats flip up when a passenger stands, like the seats in many movie theaters. This seat design — called Economy Class Cabin Hexagon — can increase the number of passengers who can fit on a typical Boeing 767 by up to 80 fliers, depending on the existing layout.
- The nation’s airlines may be running out of ways to align and configure seats, said Jason Rabinowitz, data research manager at Routehappy.com, a website that compares airline seats and amenitiesInstead, he predicts that the industry will now focus on shrinking onboard bathrooms and galleys to fit more passengers.
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As for the “hexagon” idea, he said: “It never hurts to have a design under your belt that you can use in the future.”
Source: The Union
