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Almost everybody has suffered from the lack of overhead bin space on a flight. If you are unfortunate enough to board at the end of the process, quite often all the overhead bins are full. A classic example of this is the low-cost carrier, Ryanair, which has 189 seats on its Boeing 737-800 yet only has space for 90 bags in the overhead bins, meaning nearly half the passengers end up having their hand luggage checked — that should help explain their pricing model and premium on every bit of cabin space.
In the next few years all that may change thanks to an innovative solution found by students from the University of Hong Kong, who have won this year’s Airbus Fly Your Ideas competition. The team have developed a bin that pops out of the floor from under the seat in front of you.
The innovative solution gives each passenger their own personal storage bin; while the bin may not be large enough to fit larger carryon bags, it definitely would be big enough for laptops, briefcases, purses etc.
The Fly Your Ideas competition is held annually and offers the winning team a prize of €30,000, with the winners announced in Toulouse, France. This year’s winners really impressed the Airbus Judges, and a spokesperson for the company confirmed that “'The judges were impressed in seeing such a simple but effective solution for improved passenger experience,” adding “The new aircraft cabin design fully uses the space between the cabin floor and the cargo ceiling to give passengers their own personal luggage space.”
For this year’s competition, students had to provide an innovative solution that answered one of five challenges identified by Airbus. The challenges spanned manufacturing innovations, to passenger experience, and the competition as a whole attracted close to 5,500 participants from around the globe. Since its inception in 2008, Fly Your Ideas, has had entries from over 20,000 students and 650 universities around the globe.
Our Take
This is a truly innovative solution to a problem that affects a significant number of the billions of fliers each year. Hopefully, in the long run, this innovation will be incorporated into aircraft across the globe. What do you think?
Source: Daily Mail
Images courtesy of Airbus
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