Air travelers are well acquainted with ever decreasing legroom on flights, and now European aircraft maker Airbus wants to patent a design for a tiny bicycle style seat for commercial jets.
The design features a retractable seat with a small backrest fixed to a horizontal bar with no headrest, tray table and little legroom.
The European patent submission says the design is simply to reduce the bulk of an airline seat, enabling airlines to fit in more paying passengers.
The application states: "To increase the number of cabin seats, the space allotted to each passenger must be reduced."
Airbus said there are no plans to put the idea into production, but simply to safeguard intellectual property.
"Many, if not most, of these concepts will never be developed, but in case the future of commercial aviation makes one of our patents relevant, our work is protected," said Airbus spokeswoman Mary Anne Greczyn.
"Right now these patent filings are simply conceptual."
This follows a report published last week looking at the possibility of ‘standing seats’ for short range aircraft.
The study suggested passenger numbers could be typically increased by 21% while ticket prices could fall by as much as 44%.
