[Anchorage Daily News] News this week that Delta Air Lines is testing seats that recline even less should be sufficient to confirm airline passengers’ fears that things will only get worse before they get, almost certainly, worse.But give Delta this much credit: At least they're still providing seats.
A glimpse of how bad things really could get was provided the other day at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2019 trade show in Hamburg, Germany.
The event featured plenty of innovations intended to make air travel more comfortable for those who can afford top-dollar trimmings, including first-class and business-class seats with lots of amenities.
And then there was the Italian seat manufacturer Aviointeriors, which displayed the latest iteration of its Skyrider "standing seat." It's an idea that the company unveiled about a decade ago and keeps refining to make it more appealing to airlines.
Imagine a bicycle seat with a lightly padded, upright piece of plastic to lean against.
That's pretty much the Skyrider, which Aviointeriors is hoping will be the hot ticket for carriers looking to cram even more seats into economy-class cabins, particularly for shorter flights.
"Skyrider is concept foundation of new way to travel in the short-haul routes," the company declares in passable English on its website. "Innovation is driving Aviointeriors in developing a new concept of a family of economy seats."
I reached out to Aviointeriors by email to see what kind of interest airlines have shown to the Skyrider and whether any orders have been received. I didn't get a response.
But considering that Aviointeriors has been steadily tweaking the design to meet carrier and regulatory requirements, I'm figuring they're serious about getting this product into the aviation marketplace.