Stand Up for Your Rights

Jaunted blog asks, "Are there plans afoot to make flying even more miserable than it already is? Beyond whatever nickel and dime policies carriers are toying with these days, a new concept for airlines could be headed to an Airbus near you: Standing room only seats, first reported in the New York Times. Passengers would be secured to a padded backboard with a harness like wearing a backpack; Airbus is pushing hard for this configuration on their new A380."

Now, OK, they are talking about the situation in the United States, but the fact is that the Airbus A380 is a European kit-built job, with parts being made in Britain, France and Germany and some further bits and bobs coming from Spain.

In fact, a friend of a friend works on the wings. When he told me they were making a double-decker plane, I asked if it would be painted red like the London busses. :)

Just my opinion, but the almost four hour flights from the UK to Tenerife are worse than seven hour transatlantic flights, because they use tourist class "sardine seating" already. A two hour flight to Spain and you can just put up with it. A long-haul flight does give you some chance to get fed twice to relieve boredom, get up and move around, etc.

The writers at Jaunted say, "Given the choice between hideously cramped seats and standing, we choose standing. Is it any worse than taking the subway?"

Well, from that I suspect they are of the "fit and well under 40" persuasion. Since I am neither, I would truly hate to see this kind of thing being used on our routes. Worse, since there are a lot of OAPs who make the trip regularly from the UK to the Canary Islands, what about them. Could they stand for 4 hours? What about people with medical conditions? I mean, non life-threatening, muscular types that make standing difficult.

This would be absolute torture in my opinion. What do you think?

Stand Up for Your Rights Via: Jaunted

Related:
A380 makes massive debut
Airbus A380 Makes First Long-Haul Flight

Tags: Tenerife, Canary Islands, Canarias
From: Secret Tenerife Blog | Tenerife Daily Photo