Is this double-decker seat the future of airplane travel?

A design that reconfigures airplane cabins with double-decker lie-flat seats in premium economy is being touted as a possible solution for fliers looking for more protection from the spread of Covid-19. Zephyr Seat is the vision of designer Jeffrey O'Neill, who reckons the isolation from fellow passengers that his creation will offer could be a game changer in the wake of the pandemic. "We believe that new types of travelers will require privacy or will want to pay extra for that as much as they would pay for the ability to sleep," said O'Neill, the founder and CEO of start-up Zephyr Aerospace. With Zephyr Seat, airlines could provide double-decker seating in a 2-4-2 configuration which, O'Neill says, would allow the majority of global airlines to maintain the same seating density as offered by their existing premium economy cabins. O'Neill was inspired by a sleepless flight between New York to Singapore a few years ago, on board what was then the world's longest commercial flight. Seated in premium economy,O'Neill realised halfway through the super long-haul journey that he wasn't going to get any shut eye. "I'm on probably the best rated airline in the world, and I'm getting wonderful service and the food is edible, but I can't sleep," he recalls. "This is really uncomfortable. Why is it so difficult to find an affordable way to lie flat on a flight that's 19 hours?" O'Neill found himself remembering a long-distance bus journey he'd made on a trip through Argentina. The bus used bunk beds, and he'd slept far better than on his ostensibly more luxurious air journey to Singapore. It occurred to him that maybe that was the solution.<br/>