THE UPS AND DOWNS OF AIRPLANE SEATING But where do the bags go

Posted on 10/13/2015

Airplane manufacturer Airbus has filed a patent for a seating arrangement that would see passengers stacked on top of each other.  The bizarre seating plan features a split-level mezzanine intended to make better use of cabin space.
The seating design may also include an ottoman “to be used for providing an additional feet supporting portion for the passenger occupying the first seat”.

Top-tier passengers would climb steps to their seats, according to the Airbus patent.

The idea, which designers say would operate best in business class, would see passengers on both levels recline in comfort.

In its application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Airbus said, “In modern means of transport, in particular in aircraft, it is very important from an economic point of view to make optimum use of the available space in a passenger cabin.

“Passenger cabins are therefore fitted with as many rows of passenger seats as possible, which are positioned with as little space between them as possible.

“In order to still more efficiently use the space in a passenger cabin of an aircraft, (the patent) proposes to position an elevated deck structure on a main deck floor in the passenger cabin of a wide-body aircraft for providing a mezzanine seating area in a substantially unused upper lobe of the aircraft fuselage.

Adding a mezzanine row of seats would make the most of wasted cabin space and allow airlines to sell more tickets in business class.

One of the drawings shows a split-level seating structure with consecutive rows of seats alternately arranged at a lower and a higher level.

Whether the plans will ever make it into real-life Airbus aircraft remains to be seen. According to the Washington Times, only around five percent of filed patents are ever commercially produced.

Earlier this year Airbus also filed a patent for a supersonic passenger jet, dubbed 'Son of Concorde', that could fly from London to New York in just one hour.

The question about that two tiered seating however is, “Where do you stow your cabin baggage?”