20 August 2004
Getting comfortable at 30,000 feet for 15 hours
Learning to sleep while standing
LONDON -- Airlines are scrambling to capture the lucrative trade of the
transcontinental flyer. To do this some carriers are increasing legroom between seats in their
economy class sections and adding fully flat reclining seats in first
class. United Airlines, for instance, is launching "UnitedPS," which
will feature reconfigured Boeing 757-200s with 12 lie-flat first class
seats with a pitch (i.e., the distance between seats) of 68 inches.
Other airlines are following suit.
Britannia Airways,
on the other hand, is taking a different approach to helping its
passengers cope with long-haul travel.
Miles Fenderwaller, spokesperson for Britannia Airways, told
Travel Fox, "Our airline intends to be a serious competitor in the
transcontinental market and will not take the issue of sleeping on airplanes lying
down."
Indeed, unlike United, Britannia is keeping the seats bolted where they are and
teaching its flyers to get along in the space allotted to them. The
airline has contracted with the world-renown contortionist Melinda Babarolini, to develop a passenger training program that will
incorporate many of the exercises that she and her sisters used in their
acts when touring with circuses across Europe.
"By helping them learn to sleep in cramped and awkward positions, Britannia hopes," says Fenderwaller, "to deliver our
passengers to their destinations a little more relaxed, a little more
refreshed, and a whole lot looser."
According to the Aviation Health institute, Britannia Airways flies some
of the most crowded planes in the sky with a seat pitch of only 28
inches. By teaching its passengers to relax in a confined spaces,
the airline hopes to increase revenue while avoiding suits from
passengers who develop deep vein thrombosis (DVT)—a particular problem
to airlines
in the UK recently.
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© 2004 Applied Psychology
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