Boeing Calls BS On Ryanair's Standing Room Seats

Last week, cheapo airline Ryanair once again raised hackles and made headlines saying plans to introduce vertical “standing room” seats on its planes. However, it’s looking like this may be yet another PR stunt from Ryanair’s loudmouth CEO.

In response to the reports about the standing-room seats, Boeing, the ones who actually make the planes Ryanair flies, rolled its eyes and said it just isn’t so:

We are not considering standing-only accommodations, nor do we have any plans to do so… Among other things, stringent regulatory requirements — including seats capable of withstanding a force of 16 Gs — pretty much preclude such an arrangement.

A Ryanair rep says Boeing are being a bunch of wet blankets about the vertical seat thing:

It is still at the discussion stage, yes. There are fairground rides that take people from zero to 4 Gs without the protection of an aircraft fuselage. If they can do that, and Boeing can help people get to the Moon, then it should be able to develop an upright seating design.

You might remember that Boeing has also balked on Ryanair’s pay-toilet plan saying that the extra seats Ryanair wants to put in to replace the removed free toilets would push the planes over regulators’ limits.

Oh yeah, there was also the time that the Ryanair CEO proposed charging travelers by weight. That scheme was dropped “because there’s no way of determining who’s overweight and who’s not.”


Are standing seats a standing joke?
[BBC via AOL]

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