Airplane Cabin Designers Unveil Potential Plane Seat Ideas for When We Can Travel Again (Video)

As coronavirus has tremendously impacted the aviation industry, it’s likely that when the pandemic subsides there will be a significant difference as to how planes ensure a new standard of safety.

When it comes to a solution to being in a crowded space in a post-coronavirus world, Italian aircraft interior manufacturing company Aviointeriors released their designs that meet requirements for social distancing. The designs were slated to be unveiled at this year's Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, however it was canceled due to the pandemic. Instead, the company proceeded to show their ideas online.

The first is a new seating concept called “Janus,” after the two-faced Roman god. The Janus seating plan is a two-faced seat, where the middle seat is turned around to face the rear of the aircraft. A transparent shield that wraps around the middle seat would “ensure the maximum isolation between passengers seated next to each other,” according to Avionteriors. With the wraparound shield and seating arrangement, each passenger would have their own private guarded space, with people in aisle seats even protected from those walking up and down the aircraft.

The other seat design Aviointeriors has proposed is called “Glassafe,” a transparent cocoon that attaches to the top of existing airplane seats. The attachable bubble works by “creating an isolated volume around the passenger in order to avoid or minimize contacts and interactions via air between passenger and passenger,” they said.

For the attachable Glassafe to be utilized, it would need approval from governments and regulators before they started showing up in commercial cabins.

Both products have already been patented and Aviointeriors said they’re ready for production.

As the way we travel as a whole may look different in a the coming months, hotels have also started to institute new protocols when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting rooms or public spaces.

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