The days of being crammed into a small economy seat while the young child next to you enjoys a much more comfortable journey may be numbered.
A British design company has unveiled a seat that can adapt to the physical attributes of each passenger.
Seymourpowell hopes its 'Morph' seat will offer passengers a choice of how much room they require, while airlines can charge each person according to the amount of space they take up.
The company claims to already have interest from aircraft manufacturers including Boeing and Airbus.
A statement said: "Morph uses smart architecture to adjust both the width of the seat, and individually control seat pan height and seat pan depth to suit varying sizes of passenger.
"This creates a scalable value offer for airlines, allowing them to arrange the economy cabin by people’s willingness and ability to pay for space, blurring the boundaries between the classes...
"The premise is that if the economy seat could adapt to differing people's size then comfort levels could increase without a reduction in capacity."
Traditional seat foam pads have been replaced with a fabric that is stretched across the width of three seats and around the row's frame. One piece of fabric is used for the seat back and one is used for the seat base.
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The width and recline of the seat can then be changed by shifting the armrests and mechanisms behind the fabric, while ergonomic adjustments morph the fabric to provide a "tailored fit".
Passengers can also extend the width of their armrests over their own lap, increasing the feeling of control over their own space.
However, Seymourpowell admits that charging overweight passengers more remains a controversial topic.
Jeremy White, the firm's head of transport, told the Times: "One airline told us that if they have an oversized passenger they make them buy two seats. I can't think of anything more degrading or humiliating than forcing someone to buy two seats because they are a bit wide.
"Would they rather that, than tune their seats for a few more bucks so it fits them?"
Graham Smith
