Straphangers in the Sky

Will "vertical seating" at Ryanair, the pioneering low-fare airline's latest wild idea, fly?

Ryanair, a brash super-discount airline based in Ireland, is always coming up with innovative and even outrageous ideas about packing as many bodies as possible into airplanes or deriving revenue from something other than the air fare itself. Ryanair recently conducted a two-week poll of passengers about "vertical seating."

Reportedly already available on some Asian airlines, passengers would lean back in their "seats" and would be buckled up, unlike straphangers on buses or subways. Ryanair wondered whether its passengers would be willing to fly that way if it meant free or super-super-cheap tickets.

The Ireland-based airline released the results of 88,000 passengers who participated in the poll:

Q. If it meant your flight was free, would you stand on a one-hour flight?

A. Yes 66 percent; No 34 percent

Q. If it meant your flight was half that of a seated passenger, would you stand on a one-hour flight?

A. Yes 42 percent; No 58 percent

Q. Do you think passengers should have a choice of sitting or standing as they do on buses, trains and underground transport?

A. Yes 60 percent; No 40 percent

Other than the oxymoronic nature of "vertical seating" itself, I have a few questions. How do you place a carryon under the seat in front of you if there is no seat in front of you? And how can the equate the choice between standing, or rather sitting vertically, on a plane with the ground transportation their poll mentioned. People who choose to stand while commuting generally have no choice. They do so because all the seats are taken -- and there is no fare differential between those who sit and those who stand.