‘How much to travel in cargo hold?’: Concept of ‘standing seats’ in planes has the internet at their creative best

You could love being on a flight with your whole routine down pat. Or, you could be someone who wishes they could teleport to wherever they needed to be. Either which way, this potential new update being soft-launched by some budget airlines in Europe definitely seems like the stuff of nightmares. Say hello to ‘standing seats’?!

Dubbed Skyrider 2.0 with a potential launch date set for 2026, these would be saddle-style perches on which customers would be expected to be ‘seated’ at a 45-degree angle, secured in with a seat belt (oh, the little mercies). The point? To increase seating capacity by 20 percent whilst also controlling fuel consumption. And why would absolutely anybody want to put themselves through this ordeal? Well, firstly this ‘provision’, if we can call it that, is only for flights spanning 2 hours or less. Secondly, the fares could possibly be as low as €1 and €5…so that softens the blow?

The comment sections on this update are an absolute riot, with the internet churning out their creative best steeped in sarcasm: “How about sedating people and packing them efficiently like cargo?”, “I didn’t book a flight I booked a public humiliation”, “Next time what ? they will add electric bicycle and the passengers will generate the airplane power hahahaha”, “They don’t do landing. They just give you parachute”, “How much to travel in cargo hold? 🤔”, “Hey why don’t we just have empty planes and we bring our own chairs. 😆” and “You could fill it with hammocks and fit a bunch more people all stacked on top of each other” to quote a few.

Among the more sensible takes however, this one rings the truest: “How about we focus on keeping the planes in the air and the air traffic control towers working before trying to price gouge passengers further…” as asserted by a concerned anon.

Would you consider hopping on a ‘standing seat’ for a lower price?