Enjoy the space on planes while you’ve got it

THE aeroplane giant has filed a patent for a new seat arrangement and it looks like things are going to get a whole lot worse.

ENJOY the space while you can.

Just when you thought commercial airlines couldn’t squash any more passengers on board, one of the world’s leading aeroplane manufacturers has come up with a radical new seat design.

Airbus has filed a patent for a split-level mezzanine seating design that would see passengers placed top of each other.

I’m starting to feel like a robot in here.

The design would be used in business class with the middle rows alternating between floor level and an elevated seating level. It would enable more seats to fit into the premium cabins where passengers are normally seated six across.

The plans, drawn up by three Airbus inventors in Hamburg, Germany, were submitted to the US Patent and Trademark Office in October.

This is relaxing, I think I’ll lie down for a bit of a rest.

The drawings show how each seat would recline into a lying position and those on the elevated level would have access to a stair or ladder so they can access their seat.

What a beautiful pattern they have created.

The seats could be laid out in a herringbone pattern so passengers would not be facing into the backs of seats in front of them.

Airbus wrote in the patent filing that the seating arrangement is suitable for use in the passenger cabin of an aircraft and in other means of transport, such as buses or trains.

“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,” Airbus wrote.

“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.

“[One of the drawings] describes a split level seating structure; wherein consecutive rows of seats are alternately arranged at a lower and a higher level.”

Airbus insisted the cabin design would make optimum use of the space available while still providing a “high level of comfort for the passengers using the seat arrangement”.

Time to climb up the stairs into my seat — but remember not to wear a dress.

Airbus files about 600 patents each year in order to protect its intellectual property.

Despite having filed the patent, there’s no guarantee that this will be picked up and introduced into aircraft cabins.