A Man Wants To Solve The Problem Of Tiny Airplane Seats By Stacking Passengers On Top Of Each Other

If you’ve flown economy at any point in the past decade or so I’m sure I don’t need to tell you how hilariously awful it can be. You get a sliver of space in an uncomfortable seat for however long it takes you to get to your destination. If you’re especially unlucky, you’re flying on an airline like Spirit where you have to pay for every possible thing. Well, if Airbus and a designer have their way, flying could get even more bizarre. This is the Chaise Longue, a double-decker economy class seat concept for single-deck aircraft.

The Chaise Longue Economy Seat concept has been floating around the Internet since 2021. Its inventor and designer is Chaise Longue CEO Alejandro Núñez Vicente, who thinks this could be an improvement on the economy flying experience. Alejandro says that by filling planes with double-decker rows of economy seats, the people sitting on the lower level will benefit from greater legroom while the people on the higher level can get more recline.

At the same time, Alejandro admits that the concept could help pad the profitability of an airline by helping that airline pack planes with even more seats than they do now. But is this something that the airline industry actually needs? Chaise Longue and Airbus intend to find out.

It’s pretty well-known by now that few travelers find economy-class seats on an aircraft satisfying. As I write this, there are groups and advocates attempting to push airlines towards bigger, more comfortable seats for all, not just for the passengers paying more.

Some folks complain that the current crop of economy seats just don’t work for people with long legs while others allege that the tiny seats on aircraft now might be bad for your health. The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into the sizes of airline seats, but even it has been quick to note that this research is only into the safety of these seats, not their comfort. As far as the FAA appears to be concerned, passengers can be plopped down into park benches so long as they meet regulations and permit an emergency evacuation within 90 seconds.

The Chaise Longue is the concept of Alejandro Núñez Vicente. In 2021, Alejandro was a 21-year-old student attending TU Delft University in the Netherlands. At the time, the seats were called the Chaise Longue Economy Seat Project and it made the shortlist for Judges’ Choice for that year’s Crystal Cabin Awards.

According to CNN, Alejandro used to travel around the world and one thing stuck out as being particularly painful. He hated how the seats of today lacked legroom. He figured that if only the seats in front of them were higher up, he could actually spread his legs out.

So that’s what he did. Alejandro drew up the Chaise Longue, a double-decker airline seat design made for any medium to large aircraft.

Here’s how the Chaise Longue works. An aircraft being outfitted with Chaise Longue seating would delete all overhead bins near the seats. Doing so will allow Chaise Longues to fit. Then, passengers will have to choose seats based on what they’re looking for. If they want maximum recline, they’ll have to climb up into the upper rows. If they want to relax and stretch their legs out with maximum legroom, you choose the lower seats. Both levels have better recline than planes have now, but those on the upper level have the greatest recline of the two choices.

In terms of baggage, your personal items should fit in the included storage, but you’ll have to check your carry-on. Alejandro also pitched the idea as being pandemic-safe, as he believed placing people at different levels would be “more suitable for flights in pandemic times.”

After that CNN story, the Internet erupted and nobody was quite sure what to make of the creation. As CNN wrote, some thought it was genius while others thought it was a total nightmare for people with claustrophobia or limited mobility. Others pointed out that it’s just another way for airlines to make flying worse by packing even more people into a plane and trying to package it as a good thing.

Either way, the reaction was so strong that Alejandro stopped pursuing his master’s degree and began working on this project full-time. He now has a business under the name Chaise Longue and a fancy website showing what a plane would look like with the chairs.

Perhaps more importantly, his team built some prototypes. CNN tested out the prototypes in 2022 and here’s what CNN’s Francesca Street reported:

First up, the top level. Núñez Vicente’s designed the prototype with two ladder-like steps for travelers to use to access the top level. It’s a little precarious, but once I’m up there, the seat feels roomy and comfortable, and there’s plenty of room for stretching out my legs. The prototype seats don’t move, but they’re each set up in a different positions to indicate how they could recline.

Núñez Vicente reckons there would be about 1.5 meters separating the seated passenger from the top of the plane. He argues that while a traveler couldn’t stand upright in that space, many already can’t stand upright in regular economy rows – although, presumably, these taller travelers will be even more squished by this design.

Next up, trying the bottom row of seats. Núñez Vicente’s frustration with a lack of legroom was the original impetus for the design, and by not having a seat on the same level in front of me, it does allow me to stretch out my legs, and there’s a foot rest for added comfort. Still, because the other level of seats are directly above me and in my eyeline, it feels pretty claustrophobic. But if you don’t mind tight spaces, and you’re planning simply to sleep all flight, it could be an effective solution.

Thankfully, the Chaise Longue team went back to the drawing board. Their next iteration that showed up in 2023 (above) was more open, shaved off weight, increased legroom, and now allowed people in wheelchairs to at least access the lower row. CNN had some nicer things to say this time around:

The new design keeps the same basic double-level concept, with a few minor changes. The precarious ladder-like steps that previously got you up to the top level have been switched out for a sturdier version. Luggage on the bottom level is now designed to go under the seat in front of you. Rather than built-in screens, the idea is passengers could use personal devices for inflight entertainment. Núñez Vicente says he’s also improved leg room on the top level, and I find it is pretty spacious. Plus, because there’s no one directly behind you on the same level, you can recline the seat pretty far back, which is a definite plus.

Now the Chaise Longue is back again for 2025. This time, Alejandro does not have a new version to show us. But he does say that his startup Chaise Longue company is now partnering with Airbus to continue exploring the project. Allegedly, Chaise Longue has airlines interested in the double-decker seats and now Airbus wants to help the project get to the finish line, especially for Airbus aircraft.

The startup company has acknowledged that there has been tons of backlash on social media. Lots of folks have pointed out that these seats are inherently claustrophobic in nature, specifically for the bottom rows. Others note that the current iteration would allow an upper-row passenger to prop their legs up onto the upper partition.

Chaise Longue has also received criticism because the real benefit to airlines won’t be giving you legroom, but being able to multiply the number of seats an aircraft has. In talking to CNN, Alejandro insists the Chaise Longue wasn’t designed for that purpose, but he doesn’t shy away from the idea as a selling point, from CNN:

The fact that this concept could also “give the airline a new revenue stream or a new way to make more money out of those passengers or put more seats in” — as Núñez Vicente put it at the Aviation Interiors Expo in 2024 — is merely an added bonus, he insists.

There’s the other problem with what happens to your luggage. Chaise Longue says that both levels have their own storage areas, but all imagery shows them to be no bigger than the personal item space on existing aircraft. Thus, anyone in a Chaise Longue would have to check any carry-on.

There’s also one more sort of hilarious problem. The current concept places the faces of the people in the lower row directly behind the butts of the people in the upper row. I suppose they might get the delight of smelling what the upper row had for lunch or dinner. Amusingly, Alejandro does have a response to this, from USA Today:

“The idea is that there will be some kind of restraint here,” he said, pointing to the partition behind the upper level of seats. If a passenger passed gas “it wouldn’t go straight through,” unless it were especially forceful.

I have some concerns of my own. Aircraft are supposed to be able to be evacuated in 90 seconds. People evacuating from the Chaise Longue seats would have to jump down or crawl out of their holes in an emergency situation.

Even worse, the FAA has regulations to prevent head injuries in case of emergency aircraft maneuvers and other intense situations. There’s a whole equation involved here:

There’s a potential that Alejandro’s current design, which places the heads of the bottom row passengers close to the seats in front of them, would not pass this sniff test.

That aside, there are additional concerns. Legally, airliners have to carry enough cabin crew for the number of people onboard. Likewise, the aircraft will need facilities and food stores to support them. If Frontier or Spirit did an all Chaise Longue configuration those airlines might be required to have more crew onboard, which might remove the incentive for an airline in the first place. At this time nobody even knows how airlines would react to passengers being forced to check carry-ons due to seat design. As it is, a number of airlines automatically gate-check some carry-ons due to the design of the overhead bins in some aircraft.

All of this is assuming that the seats come down to a weight that airlines would be willing to accept. Remember that airlines try to keep planes as lightweight as possible to save on fuel.

I’m left feeling conflicted. On one hand, more legroom and more seat recline are both great. On the other hand, you would likely have to check your carry-on and deboarding would take substantially longer. I’m not claustrophobic, but I could see my mom causing a ruckus if I told her to get into a cocoon.

I also don’t like the idea of someone (especially a child) missing a step trying to come down from the upper Chaise Longue and potentially busting their head open.

It also appears that the Chaise Longue, which is shown in the middle row of a widebody but can be installed on the sides, doesn’t have a ton of consideration for lavatory use. If the window seat passenger on the upper level has to use the restroom, do all other occupants up there have to climb down and then climb back up? At least to me, there seem to be too many question marks at this stage of the game.

Because of these factors and so much more, Chaise Longue and Airbus readily admit that you’re not going to be flying in double-stacked seats anytime soon. The seats are still in development and then they’d still have to go through certification. Still, Alejandro and Airbus see their new collaboration as a huge step forward to seeing this project through.

That being said, I do hope designers keep trying to find solutions to how terrible it is to fly economy. Maybe stacking people like flesh Legos might not be the answer, but I’m glad some folks are trying to make things better.