Standing Room Only on Planes?

Air travellers could eventually look back with some nostalgia at being crowded into economy seats on planes.

An innovative concept currently circulating in the aviation industry envisages passengers, in future, being strapped into aircraft in a standing position.

Such a ``standing room only'' idea could allow airlines to cram as many as 850 passengers on planes.

Physics professor Volker Mellert of Oldenburg University in Germany has seen the concept and described how passengers would lean against an upright panel.

The New York Times said earlier this week that European planemaking company Airbus, whose wings are made in the UK, had been pitching the standing-room only option to Asian carriers.

But an Airbus spokesman in London today said: ``This is a completely conceptual idea. There are no plans to introduce anything like this.''

Prof Mellert said: ``If such a configuration were ever installed on an aircraft, it would be used only on short-haul flights, like an island-hopping route in Japan.''

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