Yet again more publicity stunts by Ryanair and Tiger.
Boeing have already said no, I am sure the authorities will say no.
Obstacles I can see to it really happening are
- crash safety (standards are always increasing, they have to work out how in a relatively "survivable" crash, pax arent going to get injured on these seats)
- evacuation rate / max evacuation capacity (this is a biggie as Boeing has essentially said it wont increase the pax evacuation numbers on the 738)
- crewing (easily overcome but adds cost so is a drawback to ryanair)
- What happens when there's a 3 hours ground delay on the 45 minute flight? That's a lot of standing.
Demand from pax doesnt come into it - that's been proven that if the fares are low enough, pax will buyit and use it.
Frankly, you arent going to fit that many more than just seats to be worth it, plus you'd lose cabin storage areas so making it impractical.
I'm sure there's other reasons why this wont get off th ground, but it's doing a fantastic job ogf providing free worldwide advertising for ryanair and further positinging themselves (in their eyes at least, and certainly many consumers) as the ultimate low cost airline.
Just think - Joe Average is reading the paper, reads this article.
A few weeks later, decides he wants to travel London to Amsterdam for a weekend. Which airline (website) does he go to thinking it'll be the lowest fare? And with a lack of understanding of the product and/or all the extra charges, he has no idea it would have been easier just to book with BA for an equivalent price.
