Re-Hashing Chinese Whispers With Michael O'Leary
Friday July 10, 2009
Ever since the New York Times covered the idea in April 2006, I was wondering how long it would take Michael O'Leary to use it for creating a media storm: Standing room for airline passengers. After all, you can stand on a bus, can't you? And deceleration in a crash is not much higher ... or is it?
Now O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, has hogged the headlines with his sudden brainwave to introduce "standing room only" tickets, squeezing another six or so seats out of his beloved Boeing 737. It makes me wonder, however, that the Chinese beat our man Michael to it - no-frills carrier Spring Air already contemplated the same idea in public earlier this year.
Madness?
I don't think so. Retention systems for standing passengers may actually be safer for the passenger than the old "belt and backrest" approach to crash damage limitation. After all, would you rather experience a few g strapped onto a plank or held by a belt around your waist? And stretching your legs wouldn't be such a problem either. As long as they supply some sort of misericord to rest during flight, I wouldn't mind a standing room ticket.
But then again I have to say ... I don't really see it happening any time soon. Because the aviation regulatory bodies will have to agree. And that can be a time-consuming process.
Postscript:
You can now see the proposed standing room arrangement (including misericord and a very roller-coaster-like retention system) on Ryanair's corporate website, complete with a poll. Apparently the thinking focuses on flights of one hour or less at the moment.
Now O'Leary, CEO of Ryanair, has hogged the headlines with his sudden brainwave to introduce "standing room only" tickets, squeezing another six or so seats out of his beloved Boeing 737. It makes me wonder, however, that the Chinese beat our man Michael to it - no-frills carrier Spring Air already contemplated the same idea in public earlier this year.
Madness?
I don't think so. Retention systems for standing passengers may actually be safer for the passenger than the old "belt and backrest" approach to crash damage limitation. After all, would you rather experience a few g strapped onto a plank or held by a belt around your waist? And stretching your legs wouldn't be such a problem either. As long as they supply some sort of misericord to rest during flight, I wouldn't mind a standing room ticket.
But then again I have to say ... I don't really see it happening any time soon. Because the aviation regulatory bodies will have to agree. And that can be a time-consuming process.
Postscript:
You can now see the proposed standing room arrangement (including misericord and a very roller-coaster-like retention system) on Ryanair's corporate website, complete with a poll. Apparently the thinking focuses on flights of one hour or less at the moment.
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