When a passenger gets on a plane he does not expect great comforts: small seats, less and less space and the inability to stretch his legs. Tourists have become accustomed to the new changes being for the worse. Flying economy class has become an increasingly uncomfortable experience for people like Alejandro Núñez Vicente (Madrid, 23 years old). It measures 1.90 meters and every flight in which you have to get on is like torture. That is why he has been working for years on the development of the Chaise Longue Economy Seat, which already has three prototypes and is getting closer to becoming a reality.
His idea is simple: he doesn't want to put more passengers on the plane, he just wants those who travel to do so in the most comfortable way possible. "Many think it's going to be to annoy passengers more and airlines make more money. Our goal is to fit the same number of passengers, but give them much more space and, therefore, that the passenger travels much more comfortable, "explains to EL PAÍS the engineering student while pointing to his latest prototype located in a ship in Madrid.
But how do you get more comfortable in the same space? What Núñez wants is to renovate the interior of the planes, but only the central positions: he foresees a seating cabin on two levels, with rows on the ground and others elevated. In this way, space will be maximized and passengers will be able to fully stretch their legs, lie down and be comfortable during the flight. "If you remove the upper luggage compartment, you can put seats that are higher and this allows you to generate more space per passenger without changing the capacity," says its inventor. A new proposal that does not eliminate the compartment for luggage, but places it in another location under the seat.
I couldn't have gotten here without AIRE, a Spanish aircraft interiors company sponsoring the prototype. After presenting it for the second consecutive year at the Aircraft Interiors Expo, an aeronautical furniture fair held in Hamburg, it already has proposals from some leading companies in the aviation sector to integrate their proposals into their aircraft.
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