If you’re still chuckling or outraged over Ryanair’t years-ago talk about getting passengers to fly standing up, you’re ready for the latest from Qantas: It’s talked to Airbus and Boeing about accommodating passengers in unused cargo space.
Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO, has been quoted, from a recording obtained by the Sydney Morning Herald, as saying “One of the concepts that we have is maybe if we’re not carrying freight you do something lower where cargo is on the aircraft, do you have an area where people can walk? Do you have berths like on a train?”
The idea apparently came up as part of ‘Project Sunrise,’ Qantas’ plan to expand its network of ultra-length flights, such as the one recently started between London and Perth. More routes, including London flights from Sydney and Melbourne, and from Australia to New York, are planned to start by 2022.
In anticipation of those flights, the airline has been talking with Boeing and Airbus about modifications to 777-8X and A350-900 planes for the ultra routes. Joyce says that “nothing is off the table” and that “There’s a lot of ‘out there’ thinking that’s going on.
Sure is.
Photo: Maksym Kozlenko/Wikimedia
