Double-bed business class airplane seats might be the dream for passengers, but for airlines, such sprawling annexation of prime cabin real estate may not be quite so appealing.
Which is why Singapore-based AirGo Design has come up with a solution to the Tetris-like challenge of maximizing seating space that it claims is the most space-efficient yet.
The company has just premiered its new approach to business class featuring sofa-style flat bed seating that’ll apparently fit in narrow-body airliners as well as as bigger aircraft.
It’s hoping its so-called Galaxy cabin configuration will be picked up by major airlines and installed on aircraft across the world.
Space and design
The cabin design incorporates two very different seats.
By the window, there’s a sleeper-style sofa seat that will work for couples and families. The middle section is configured to work better for those traveling alone.
For the window seats there’s a dividing wall that can be completely lowered, turning into a queen-size bed or shared area, with the opportunity for sleeping in a variety of different angles.
The window seat has a pretty small pitch, just 27.6 inches – but it’s flexibility, says AirGo, makes it feel luxurious.
The middle seats, more traditional business class models, have a larger pitch of 47.6 inches.
“Typically, in business class, you have one type of seat, and they are positioned at different angles with respect to the access of the aircraft,” Alireza Yaghoubi, co-founder and chief technology officer at AirGo tells CNN Travel.
“We should have more than one kind of seat, we should be able to fit even more seats, by essentially using the wasted space.”
On a Boeing 777 configuration, Galaxy offers 36 seats, with space for a cocktail bar. It’ll also work on other aircraft including the Airbus A330 and Boeing 787.
AirGo is in the process of securing a patent for the seating arrangement, but it doesn’t necessarily plan to manufacture the seats itself – even though it’s known for its “Carbon” composite seat concept.
New seating concepts
The 2019 Airplane Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany was abuzz with talk of innovative new seating concepts from the controversial, such as Aviointeriors’ infamous standing-up seat. to the more appealing, like Airbus’ “settee corner.”
The concept of aircraft interiors being multi-purpose, a place for cocktails and yoga as much as for sleeping and eating – is the crux of many of these creative new ideas.
Take Ultraflex, an idea from AIM Altitude, a British aviation company, which imagines an inflight hub that’s also a fitness studio, bar and meeting space.
For Yaghoubi, it’s the idea of adding two different kinds of seats to the mix that makes his company’s Galaxy concept stand out.
AirGo Design’s next step? Creating a full-scale mock-up to allow airlines and potential passengers to see what it’d be actually like to share an airplane bed with their family and enjoy the space.