For Airbus, it seems there is no such thing as empty space, with the passenger plane manufacturer designing a mezzanine level that would stack passengers above others' heads.
Telegraph Travel reports the designs show how seats on a second level would allow space for reclining chairs with stair or a ladder leading to the upper seats.
The patent, which was filed to the European Patent Office, states it was important from an economic point of view to make optimum use of the space available.
"Passenger cabins are therefore fitted with as many rows of passenger seats as possible, which are positioned with as little space between them as possible.
WOULD YOU SIT ON THE NEW SEATS? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK
"In order to still more efficiently use the space in a passenger cabin of an aircraft, [the patent] proposes to position an elevated desk structure on a main deck floor in the passenger cabin of a wide-body aircraft for providing a mezzanine seating area in a substantially unused upper lobe of the aircraft fuselage."
This design may never be brought into fruition however as Airbus said it is just one of several hundred patents the company files each year.
- nzherald.co.nz