“CATTLE-CLASS” travel has been given new meaning by a pioneering concept circulating in the airline industry: flights on which some passengers remain standing.

The notion of a standing-room section is a logical conclusion to the cut-throat quest by airlines to milk revenue in the face of soaring costs, industry experts say.

After cramming as many economy-class seats into aircraft as the human body and the airframe can take, designers are looking at ways of strapping passengers on to boards with small, ledge-like seats.

There are no regulations barring vertical passengers, provided that they are strapped in during take-off and landing. Installing more low-fare passengers in the rear of the aircraft would free space up front for the high-profit, premium seats that can come as fold-out beds, with built-in massage, internet outlets and other amenities.

Airbus, whose A380 super-jumbo will enter service this year, denied yesterday a report in The New York Times that it had been offering a standing-room configuration to Asian airlines that had so far been rejected. The first A380s, that could, in theory, carry more than 800 passengers on their double decks, are being equipped with about 550 seats, including all classes, a spokeswoman said.

Airbus is highlighting spaciousness and comfort. A full-size mock-up at the Airbus headquarters in Toulouse features a library, a bar-lounge and a flat-screen waterfall.

Howard Guy, a director for Design Q, a seat consultancy in Britain that works with big airlines, said yesterday: “You could probably get double the people into the aircraft (with the stand-up concept), but it would create new problems.

“It would be something like a bus shelter seat that you rest on for a while. You would have to make the cabin taller, and the backsides of people are in different places, so they would have to be adjustable. There is the question of how long can you stand . . . and what happens when you hit turbulence.” The need for extra luggage space would also limit the number of stand-up passengers, he said , Volker Mellert, of Oldenburg University in Germany, who has seen the concept, said: “To call it a seat would be misleading. If such a configuration were ever installed on an aircraft, it would be used only on short-haul flights, like an island-hopping route in Japan.”

Air France and British Airways have dismissed the idea. “This is not on our agenda . . . it would be impossible for flights of more than an hour,” an Air France spokeswoman said. Packing an airliner would mean higher fuel consumption, so the profit advantages would not be simple arithmetic, she said.

Evacuating an aircraft with passengers packed like rush-hour Underground commuters would probably be impossible, she added. The A380 passed a regulatory test this year by evacuating all 853 passengers in less than 90 seconds.

Standing-room seats would conform to US regulations, which shape international legislation. The Federal Aviation Administration does not require a passenger to be seated, merely secured. No-frills flights on a padded backboard would presumably be short enough to enable passengers to remain in place without food, drink or visits to the lavatory.

UP, UP AND AWAY

Rise in passengers at British airports by year

1950 2m

1955 5m

1960 10m

1965 20m

1970 32m

1975 42m

1980 58m

1985 70m

1990 102m

1995 129m

2000 180m

2005 229m

Source: Department for Transport

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