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Will passengers stand for latest Ryanair stunt?
Just when you think Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary can't come up with another way to mess with his passengers, he takes away the seats. The European low-cost carrier's latest way to cut costs and cram more people on planes is to stick them on stools with seatbelts. According to the Daily Mail, he's even spoken with Boeing about making this happen.
The nice expression for this, used Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara, is "vertical seating."
But, it's not a sure thing. The Irish Aviation Authority needs to give him the green light. Something tells me that there has to be a safety issue buried in this. There just has to be. If not, well, let them stand.
The airline estimates that it could increase passengers per flight by 30 percent with the standing room approach and at the same time cut costs by 20 percent. That's a pretty big gap between revenue and expenses – the sort of financial upside that most airlines have been unable to figure out.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Kent Wien Jul 6th 2009 10:41AM
The IAA will simply point to the 189 passenger certification limit of the 737-800. The limit is based on the number of emergency exits among other things. I suppose Boeing could build a high-density version for Ryanair, though.
Louis Haar Jul 8th 2009 2:57AM
Although this sounds like a crackpot idea, Michael O'Leary is a shrewd businessman and I suspect he has done some research to check the viability of this. He must be aware that there is a ready market of punters willing to stand for anything, excuse the pun. Safety should be the issue but actually isn't. Cheaper travel on short flights is the issue and one must remember that although airline travel is very safe, there are many safety related products and systems that are not incorporated into commercial aviation due to costs. But people still fly.
Look at the giant Airbus A380. Latest technology but people still face forwards.
Military transports favor rearward facing seats for safety reasons, but the airline industry feel the pax won't like it. So it doesn't happen. If a fully loaded airbus crashes, over 500 pax face death. But that didn't stop A.I developing and building it. I won't use it......tooooo risky.