You may remember the shock and alarm over Aviointerior’s Skyrider seat, which envisioned packing more passengers onto airplanes by offering an abbreviated seat that was more like a saddle.
The early version was never certified or taken very seriously, but the company is not giving up.
At this week’s Aircraft Interiors Expo taking place in Hamburg, Germany, Aviointeriors is showing the Skyrider 2.0, which is a bit more sturdy and padded version of the orginal saddle seat, with poles securing the seat to the floor and to the ceiling of the cabin (to improve saftey) and the pitch the same claustrophic 23 inches as before.
The company rep who showed me the seat said this version should be able to get certified for airlines and that these saddle-seats are really designed for short haul flights and for price-points “that make travel possible for people who would never otherwise be able to fly.”
The Skyrider seats aren’t shown anywhere on the Aviointeriors website. Instead, customers are directed to ‘real’ products with Italian-inspired names such as Columbus (a line of economy cabin seats), Galileo (business class seats) and Mona Lisa (first class.)