Saddle up' Cowboy - new inititative for airlines who want the economy squeeze

The ‘SkyRider’ is inspired by saddles used by cowboys and is the creative idea of Italian design firm Aviointeriors Group. The company claims you can sit on a horse for long periods of time and not feel discomfort, so the ‘Skyrider’ is the same idea.

Passengers sit on the 'saddle' at an angle, with their weight taken by their legs. It allows seats to be overlapped. It offers passengers 23 inches of legroom between them and the seat in front, which is seven inches less than the current average seat pitch of around 30 inches.

The new seat design promises to attract plenty of attention from airlines looking to increase the number of seats in the economy class sections of planes, and passengers would pay less to sit in an area of the cabin installed with the seats.

Several airlines have already expressed an interest according to Dominique Menoud, director general of Aviointeriors Group: 'We feel extremely confident that this concept will have great appeal to airlines for economic purposes.'

'For flights anywhere from one to possibly even up to three hours this would be comfortable seating. The seat is like a saddle. Cowboys ride eight hours on their horses during the day and still feel comfortable in the saddle,” said Menoud.

In July this year, Ryanair's Michael O'Leary said his airline would offer vertical seats, for as little as £5 each way.

O’Leary said he would remove the back ten rows of seats from 250 planes and replace them with 15 rows of so-called ‘vertical seating’.

But the latest idea of such seats has already been dismissed by safety officials at the European Aviation Safety Agency, in Cologne, Germany. A representative said: “These plans are highly unlikely to meet stringent safety approval. To our knowledge, no airlines or other operators have made an application for stand-up seats.”