Standing room only
“The airlines have come up with a new answer to an old question: How many passengers can be squeezed into economy class? A lot more, it turns out, especially if an idea still in the early stage should catch on: standing-room-only “seats.”” [source]
This is depressing. It is bad enough standing on a train, I hate to imagine the experience of being crammed in a real cattle class flight, standing all the way.
What is missing in this proposition is the question of the customer experience? Is there a customer appetite for this? Have the airlines done market research to understand the demand for standing room only flights? (And not just run a few focus groups but mocked up the experience and gathering feedback on it). It is all to easy to drive a business case based upon the extra sales volume that this shoddy experience will be expected to provide, but when it goes to market, will the demand match that predicted in the business case?