Fly half price, standing up

July 7, 12:50 PMOffbeat News ExaminerBroderick Perkins

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In-flight, standing-room-only escort?

Giving new meaning to an Air Bus, an Irish airline wants to launch jetliners equipped with standing-room-only areas.

Ryanair is seeking permission from the Irish aviation authority to allow passengers to stand up on short flights lasting less than 90 minutes.

Passengers willing to stand would be huddled next to bar stool-type seats with belts securing them against any turbulence.

For a thrill ride that's one step up from hanging from a commuter strap, standing passengers would pay half the ticket price for saner passengers sitting down and buckled up.

Imagine that. Standing airline passengers with extra money for booze.

The company has asked Boeing to look at the possibility of retro-fitting its planes by ripping out a few back rows or building a new fleet with "vertical seating."

Forget for a moment that imports from China are viewed with skepticism these days, but China's Spring airline had a similar idea which Ryanair is co-opting.

Talk about deadly recalls.

Times are tough. Bottom line thinking is essential.

Spring estimated that vertical seating can add about 50 percent more passengers and cut costs by about 20 percent.

Ryanair specializes in cheap, no frills flights in and around selected major cities in Europe. The airline has done away with baggage check-in and is also considering in-flight casinos.

Good thing the company gave up on pay toilets. The Mile High Club has always been complimentary.

Speaking of which, a few years back, the airline began produced a racy marketing calendar of Ryanair heads...er, flight attendants and stand-ins (pun intended) posing everywhere from the tarmac to the cockpit.

Attendants stripped down for charity and raised the cabin temperature to dangerous levels.

Talk about flying the friendly skies.

Woo hoo!

Next up: Flying low over drive-in movie theaters instead of in-flight movies.

More news on the offbeat airline, Ryanair.