Air Industry Looks at Standing Room Only on Planes

The aviation industry is looking at scrapping seats on planes and making space for standing room only.

Fliers in the “standing section” could be propped up by a padded backboard, held in place with a harness, the New York Times has reported.

The aim is to get more than 850 passengers into one of the new Airbus A380 super jumbos, which was designed to accommodate 500 passengers.

Airbus has approached carriers in Asia but none has agreed.

Airbus said in a statement after the story came out that, “Airbus simply does not offer a standing room option to our customers on our aircraft.”

According to MSNBC, Airbus admitted the idea was studied and discarded in 2003.

There is no legal barrier to installing standing-room only seats. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, for example, does not require a passenger be in a sitting position for take off and landing, only secured.