Sit down for this: Airline travel has not hit bottom

One of the latest airline seats to cause turbulence (at least for passengers) is the so-called Sky Rider, or in a reference to its comfort level, the “saddle seat.” Appropriately named since passenger’s semi-stand in a position likened to riding a horse, with a person’s weight carried by their legs.
 

It’s designed to reduce individual seat spacing by one fourth, thus allowing 40 percent more passengers on flights. It’s promoted, of course, by budget airlines but has yet to arrive on the scene.
 

This brings us to the future of airline travel, which does not look “too rosy,” at least for passenger comfort, writes the New York Times’ Joe Sharkey. First, he mentions the discomfort of already existing and cramped airline seats.
 

After attending the annual Aviation Forecast Conference sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration, he wondered how comfortable airline travel would be in the future for passengers.

He found these disturbing developments:
 

—The number of passengers boarding airlines based in the US will nearly double by 2031.
 

—Already, load factors (number of seats taken) is set at 80 percent. The figure is growing at more than two percent a year. “Planes continue to be full from front to back,” said Nan Shellabarger, the FAA’s director of aviation policy and plans. “We are constantly amazed by how high the levels are, and how they keep moving upward.”
 

—And airports themselves? Forecasters say the 29 major hubs which now handle 70 percent of all passenger traffic is steadily increasing, says Shellabarger.
 

—But at the same time, service at many of the 36 medium-size hubs and hundreds of smaller domestic airports is shrinking, right along with the number of 50-seat regional jets in operation.
 

—Finally, the biggest growth area in airlines is low cost carriers or LCC’s, which are far better known for the bottom dollar than for providing any upgraded creature comforts.
 

The FAA’s optimistic forecast is that airlines will continue to be profitable (they reached recent records). But Sharkey wonders how all these trends will affect future travelers.
 

“We passengers are still left wondering how these trends will affect us and our cherished national system of convenient, readily accessible air travel, as vexing as it has often been lately. Air fares will keep rising, service will be less available and, of course, planes will stay crowded,” he says.
 

On the good news side, the FAA says NextGen, a major overhaul of the air traffic control system will reduce flight delays 21 percent by 2018. The FAA says this system will also introduce vast improvements in flight operations, including during bad weather (which accounts for most flight delays).
 

More good news from Boeing: Their Seattle-based “passenger experience” office showed off a new line of cabin improvements, including seating designs that make better ergonomic use of existing interior space.
 

Airbus is also working on new ideas for cabin space, which other carriers will also need to address as fleets get too old to fly.
 

However, considering the packed airline predictions of the future, and the sad record of the past, does anyone think passengers won’t be soon sitting on “saddle seats?” Ride ‘em…cowboy, like it or not.
 

By David Wilkening