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歐洲廉價航空瑞安航空公司近期表示將推出票價僅為4英鎊的“站票”，乘客可以站著斜靠在一塊板上，背部有軟墊，肘部有扶手，胸部有安全防護橫擋。該航空公司首席執行官表示，他們會將250架飛機內后十排的座位和兩個衛生間拆除，改裝為15排直立座位，這樣每個航班就可以多運送50名乘客。歐洲航空安全局表示，瑞安航空此舉并無先例可循，近期內得到運行許可的可能性并不大。安全局方面指出，航空安全法規定機上每個乘客必須有一個“座位”或者“鋪位”，而他們這個直立座位并不在規定范圍內。不過，瑞安的執行官對此并不在意，他表示直立座位的安全測試將于明年進行，在全面推廣之前將只在飛行時間1小時內的航班中使用。屆時，購買站票的乘客使用機上衛生間也需要額外支付1英鎊的費用。
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European budget airline Ryanair says it is planning to allow passengers to fly standing up in vertical seats. |
Air passengers might soon be able to fly from just ￡4, with ample leg room to boot. There’s just one small catch, it seems – they’ll have to stand.
European budget airline Ryanair says it is planning to allow passengers to fly standing up in vertical seats. Passengers would be restrained with a strap stretching over their shoulder, the airline said.
But the bizarre initiative ran into an immediate obstacle. European aviation safety regulators said the perches would not meet safety rules.
Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary went ahead regardless with his announcement of plans to remove the back ten rows of seats from 250 planes and replace them with 15 rows of so-called ‘vertical seating’. Two lavatories at the back could also be removed, helping to allow up to 50 extra passengers on each flight.
Mr O’Leary told ITV1’s How To Beat The Budget Airlines that safety testing would begin next year, when a ￡1 charge to use toilets will be introduced.
Ryanair hopes to phase in the perches on commuter flights of up to an hour long before expanding them to all aircraft.
Aviation law states that people have to have a seat belt on for take-off, landing and turbulence. A final decision on whether the perches meet the rules would rest with the European Aviation Safety Agency based in Cologne, Germany.
But last night it dismissed the Ryanair plan as a stunt.
‘To our knowledge, no airlines or other operators have made an application for stand-up seats,’ a spokesman said.
What they are proposing would be unprecedented and highly unlikely to be certified in the near future.
‘Stand-up seating would require changes to European rules for the certification of aircraft.
‘The current rules determine that each passenger has to be provided with “a seat or, if they are immobile, a berth”. This is neither.’
The publicity has certainly succeeded in distracting attention from Ryanair’s controversial introduction yesterday of ‘big baggage’ charge rises.
Checking in a suitcase will cost up to ￡80 over the summer.
The vertical seating idea also comes days after the airline announced it was slashing its winter services by 16 per cent and carrying 2million fewer passengers.
Boeing, which supplies Ryanair’s fleet of 273 737-800 passenger jets said: ‘We are not considering standing-only accommodations.
‘Stringent regulatory requirements – including seats capable of withstanding a force of 16 times gravity – pretty much preclude such an arrangement.’
But Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: ‘We are confident the seats can pass safety tests.
‘Boeing can put a man on the moon so I am sure they are able to make these a success. ‘Seats are lighter and the carbon footprint will be smaller, as more seats fit into a smaller area.’
Mr O’Leary has manipulated the media to publicise his airline in the past.
‘Standing room only’ was mooted back in 2006 when a prototype ‘perch seat’ was unveiled. On that occasion, Ryanair later dismissed the idea as ‘a joke’.
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(Agencies)
（中國日報網英語點津 Helen 編輯）
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