In the Future, Everyone Will Have First-Class Seats

No longer the domain of first-class travellers, private, reclining seats may soon be available to lower classes of air travel too, thanks to a new design.

The design in question, called Zephyr Seat, would reconfigure airplane cabins with lie-flat seats stacked double-decker style in premium economy. The design would also offer privacy and necessary social distancing in a post-COVID world—something designer Jeffrey O'Neill believes will be just as important to travellers as the ability to sleep comfortably when travel resumes.

The design of Zephyr Seat would allow airlines to offer this double-decker seating in the same 2-4-2 configuration as most large planes currently have in their premium economy section, which means traveller density could stay at the same rate, which is an important consideration for airlines.

The idea for Zephyr Seat was a lightbulb moment for O'Neill as he lay sleepless in premium economy on a nineteen-hour New York to Singapore flight. He compared the experience to a long-distance bus trip he’d taken in South America, on which the seats were double-decker and could be reclined all the way back, and wondered why the same thing couldn’t be done on a long-haul flight.

That was in 2018 and, since then, the idea has gone from the back of an airplane napkin to a full-size prototype. He shared his design with airline industry players at the 2019 Airline Interiors Expo in Hamburg, which helped refine his idea, and the next step is arduous safety tests, which can take years to complete.

The design makes use of the space above existing seats, where the overhead bin would normally be. Getting rid of the overhead bin opens up enough space to squeeze in a whole extra seat. The seats are made with extremely lightweight composite materials to limit the total weight carried by the plane, and have as few moving parts as possible.

The seats, which would have space for one passenger, would work like private pods, with seats with dropdown footwells, that can fold down to create tiny beds. They are designed for a single person, but there would be space for young children to stay with their parents. Small telescopic ladders would give access to upper seats, which would only be about 140cm off the ground.

O'Neill says he's found an engineering partner and that he’s had discussions with four major airlines, including US carrier Delta, but nothing has been decided on yet.

It’s not surprising that no one is making commitments about airplane upgrades; no one knows what travel is going to look like in the next couple of years—or indeed if travel is even going to be a viable option for the masses. Certainly, in the wake of a devastating pandemic, travellers are wary of boarding planes again, and offering seats that enhance social distancing to reduce risk is likely to lure travellers back into the skies.

However, there are some questions with the design that still need to be addressed. The ladder access poses problems for less agile passengers, and if a ladder was retracted, it might leave passengers stranded in upper beds. Another issue is the extremely limited headroom that these double-decker seats offer; they’re great for lying down, but not so good if you actually prefer to sit upright.

Plus, if premium economy seats now offer business-class levels of privacy and comfort, passengers may stop paying for those lucrative seats, which would see airlines lose a large chunk of their revenue.

Still, if full-reclining seats and individual pods become standard on planes, we’ll be first in line!

See the seats up-close and personal in the video below:

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