Spring Airlines Pushes Boundaries with Standing-Only Airplane Seats
Picture this: rushing to your plane and, instead of settling into a cramped economy chair, strapping yourself onto a vertical perch with your feet planted and hands gripping rails—just like squeezing into a crowded subway during rush hour. That's exactly what China’s Spring Airlines wants for its passengers with its bold new push for standing seats.
Led by chairman Wang Zhenghua, Spring Airlines straight up admits that cheaper tickets mean finding new ways to fit more people onboard. Their plan? Rip out some regular seats and pack in a third “standing class.” Passengers in this zone would have their own vertical seat with a back cushion, safety bar across the chest, handrails, and even a lower leg brace. Imagine the feel of a high-top bar more than a business-class lounge.
This setup is not just to try something new. China’s travel spikes—think Chinese New Year and the frantic scenes at airports—are legendary. Every seat counts, and the budget airline says these standing berths would let them squeeze in 40% more travelers on busy routes. More people flying means they can offer seats that are about 30% cheaper than their regular economy fares. For cost-conscious passengers who just want to get from point A to B, that sounds like a dream.
Safety, Skepticism, and Global Roadblocks
But packing more people in the skies doesn’t come without headaches. Regulators in China weren’t exactly eager to approve the standing-seat idea, pointing out the obvious: nobody else in the world has pulled this off. The safety questions are massive. What happens during turbulence or emergencies? Even with the promise of seatbelts and bracing bars, experts worry about how such a setup would hold up in bumpy skies, not to mention the long-term effects on comfort for passengers standing through a multi-hour flight.
It’s not the first time airlines have wanted to pack folks in like sardines. Europe’s Ryanair once famously floated the idea of “vertical seating” back in 2012 but ditched it after regulators refused to play along. Over in South America, VivaColombia talked up their own saddle-style version—basically a bar stool with minimal support and no traditional seatbelt—but that too never got off the ground for similar reasons.
Spring Airlines’ design tries to check some extra boxes with full harnesses and bars, but they’ve still got to win over a doubting public and, of course, the Chinese aviation authority. Right now, there’s no green light even for a test. Surveys and online chatter show people split: some say “cheap and fast, who cares,” while others imagine nightmare scenarios involving sore legs, fatigue, and trying to hang onto hot instant noodles while jostling with a crowd.
- Standing seats would supposedly fill just half the space of regular ones.
- The airline wants to pilot these on domestic and regional flights in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
- No official aviation body anywhere has approved a standing section for commercial flights.
Spring Airlines has built its reputation on budget fares and clever cost-saving tweaks, but this latest idea is their most radical yet. Whether squeezing more people into the skies is ingenuity or insanity—that’s still up for debate.