Travel

Let’s be honest. It’s hard to get comfortable when travelling on a long-haul flight and even the swanky business or first class seats will not guarantee cabin fever won’t set in. This is why the airline industry is constantly teching up and rethinking airplane seating to provide passengers with better comfort and more versatility, such as Airbus.

An international pioneer in the aerospace sector, Airbus designs, manufactures and delivers everything from passenger jetliners to freighters and private jets. Recently, it announced it was working on a roomy couch-style seating layout in business class dubbed the Settee Corner chair.

ICYMI: Airbus, Geven unveil hybrid “Settee Corner” business-economy concept https://t.co/h5aeb6hJJo #PaxEx #avgeek #aviation #travel #AIX19 pic.twitter.com/ha2Ko3ROJo

— Becca A 🏳️‍🌈 (@RunwayGirlBecca) April 6, 2019

Developed in collaboration with seat manufacturer Geven, Settee Corner premiered at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2019 (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany. Based on an economy-class three-seater configuration, it offers couch-style airplane seating alongside all the usual business class features.

The seat allows travelers to recline lounge-style as they would on a couch at home. Travelers can opt chill out alone or be joined by a traveling partner and together, they will both enjoy all the usual amenities including ample stowage space, in-flight entertainment, and a roomy overhead locker.

When it’s time to casually unwind with a book or get under a blanket for some much-needed shut-eye, they just need to lie down on the seat. No searching for buttons or levers, no complicating mechanisms required. For safety reasons, there’s a safety belt to use during take-off and landing, and a second safety belt for passengers in sleep mode.

Airbus developped a new business class seat named Settee Corner for its A320 family used for long haul flights #AIX19 pic.twitter.com/zw0nZkZyhX

— Gesche Wüpper (@GescheW) April 2, 2019

There are other advantages. First, each passenger has direct access to the aisle and each cabin crew has direct access to the passenger, easily, not like in some of the staggered configurations, CNN reported. The chair is also 30 to 50 percent lighter than a traditional business class which means it could potentially be friendlier on the aircraft’s fuel consumption.

Source: CNN

Related: Airbus Bids Adieu to the A380