Flights to be available from £4
By S Hunt, 2nd July 2010
Budget airline Ryanair has announced plans to make discounted
tickets available to customers willing to stand up for the duration
of the flight.
Planes will be fitted with new vertical seats, which will come
at a much lower cost than traditional seating, starting at £4 per
person.
Head of Ryanair Michael O'Leary has proposed a surcharge of £1
for using toilets mid-flight to fund the installation of the new
seats, which will feature seatbelts going over the shoulder and a
cushion to support the lower back.
O'Leary claims the new seats will make flights more
fuel-effective and slash Ryanair's carbon footprint, while also
allowing planes to accommodate a larger number of passengers. Plans
are two remove the back 10 rows of seats from their 250 planes and
replace them with 15 rows of vertical seats, which will make it
possible to squeeze 40 to 50 more passengers onto each flight.
A poll conducted by the low-cost airline suggests that
two-thirds of people would entertain using the vertical seats if
they were free, whereas 42% would contemplate standing up if it was
half the price of a regular seat.
However, there is one caveat - for the plans to go ahead,
Ryanair still needs the approval of the Civil Aviation Authority,
which has articulated misgivings over whether the new seats would
pass safety rules.
If given the green light, Ryanair intends to test the water by
introducing standing next year, initially on flights lasting one
hour and under.
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