Is this the future of airline seats? Coach passengers could soon be getting first class seats with the new AirGo seating system designed by an undergraduate student at the University of Malaya.
The Daily Mail reports that Alireza Yaghoubi designed the AirGo seat after sitting on a series of uncomfortable eight hour flights. Yaghoubi said that he was constantly bothered by people reclining in their seats. Not only were they invading the “space he paid for,” but he also felt like he couldn’t recline his seat because he didn’t want to steal space from the person behind him.
Yaghoubi said: “(When a person reclines they take up) one-third of the space I have paid for. I now have this dilemma whether I should recline my seat too.”
The Malaysian student said that the problem gets worse when the fold down trays are involved.
The AirGo seats don’t add too much additional space to your average cargo space, but they were designed to make sure that the space you have is never taken away by a reclining seat. Each person has a minimum amount of space that will never be occupied by another passenger.
Yaghoubi said:
“Compared to a normal economy class, AirGo uses only an additional 16 percent of floor space thanks to the new nylon mesh design which replaces the bulky cushions in current seats, Yaghoubi said. “They are cheap, durable, recyclable and more comfortable, yet they are considerably thinner.”
According to ABC News , airlines would probably lose about 16 seats with the new AirGo system. Yaghoubi said that the airlines can make up that money with the personal screens installed on the seats.
Yaghoubi said:
“The big screen for example can be used to encourage passengers to purchase a few dollar applications, movies, songs, games and books that could be used on their other devices elsewhere through cloud syncing.”
Here’s a video about the AirGo seats.
Yaghoubi’s design has already won the Malaysia James Dyson Award, but is this the future of airline seats?
Here are some photos of the design. Let us know what you think in the comments below.
