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Double-decker airline seats: Will they be the future of air travel?

23-year-old Alejandro Núñez Vicente's revised seat design was displayed at Aircraft Interiors Expo in Germany's Hamburg

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Social media is again abuzz with a design of double-decker seats for planes. Alejandro Núñez Vicente, a man as tall as 6 foot 2 inches, presented the design last year but neither the airlines nor the social media were happy about it.

Now, Vicente is back with an updated version, which he believes will change the face of air travel. However, not many industry experts are buying it.

A prototype of his Chaise Longue Airplane Seat first went viral last year, which was not received well on social media, the report said. However, Vicente displayed a new version of the seat at the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Germany’s Hamburg.

"It has been a crazy adventure, full of experiences and trips all over the world, but also full of obstacles and challenges that little by little we have been able to solve and overcome," he posted on Instagram after the exhibition..

"Today I can firmly say that I am proud of what I have achieved, but I am even prouder of all the people that has been helping and pushing me in any way, because only thanks to them I stand where I stand today.

"I have seen a lot of reaction from the general public and the media about my seat concept, some of them have nice comments, others have constructive advice and tips, which I am very grateful for! But to those “haters” and “journalists” who just criticise and try to bring me down just from seeing a couple of pictures (or outdated renders), I can tell you that you just prove how bored, unprofessional or small you are, and that I would have loved to see you where you were at 22 years old 😉. I can say proudly that I HAVE PRESENTED MY PROTOTYPE AT THE BIGGEST AIRCRAFT INTERIORS EXPO OF THE WORLD (@aixexpo ), and IT HAS BEEN A COMPLETE SUCCESS!!," he added.

According to a report published in The Independent, Vicente started developing the double-decker seat in 2021 with a goal of creating additional legroom.

“The idea is that there will be some kind of restraint here,” firstpost.com quoted him saying to USA Today, pointing to a partition behind the upper level of seats. He added that ‘it wouldn’t go straight through’ unless it were especially forceful.

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“It’s much easier for flight attendants to help (disabled passengers) into their seats by having this folding seating option,” he said. “The idea is that the seat folds up in every single row of the aircraft to make it much more accessible.”

About the criticism, he said people always hate innovation in some ways.

“Most of the times when they show you something new, everyone hates it at first, they’re scared of change. But the more you show it, and the more you develop it, and the more they see it, the more they get used to it,” he told CNN.

The airlines will be at advantage with the new design as they would be able to accommodate more passengers. However, according to experts, it will not be practical soon as the regulations of the Federal Aviation Administration would be an obstacle.

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