In May 2025, reports spread in the media and Telegram channels about an innovation that airlines plan to introduce next year. We have verified the accuracy of such publications.

Information that low-cost airlines plan to increase the capacity of their aircraft by 20% by 2026 thanks to the introduction of a new type of seat in which passengers stand rather than sit is published with reference to the British newspaper Daily Mail. “The new SkyRider 2.0 seats are saddle-like and designed for short flights of up to two hours,” the reports say. Notes on this topic have been published RBC, "Poster Daily", "Finance Mail.ru", "Around the world" And UNIAN, and posts about the upcoming innovation appeared in Telegram channels “Live broadcast • news"(736,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Insider UA"(461,000), "Dvach"(256,000), "ZeRada" (224,000) "Evil proof️"(212,000), "Dobrodvach"(212,000), Nexta Live (191,000), "Moscow today"(189,000), "Bloody lady» (167 00), etc..

The article referred to by media and Telegram channels was published May 21 in the British tabloid Daily Mail. It talks about the concept of SkyRider standing aircraft seats, which the Italian company has been developing for 15 years Aviointeriors.

The very idea of vertical seats for airplanes has been discussed since the early 2000s. In 2006, The New York Times wrote, that, according to her, Airbus has been offering the “standing cabin” option to Asian carriers for some time, but none of them showed interest in such an innovation and the project was never implemented. A few years later, Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary became interested in the idea of standing seats on airplanes. In 2010 he shared with the press plans to equip the sides of the low-cost airline with ten rows of standing seats. Tickets for them, according to his plans, should have cost around €10.

That same year the public was presented first chair concept SkyRider. The model looked like a riding saddle - the creators remindedthat cowboys spend eight hours a day in the saddle, which means passengers can spend a short flight in such a seat without much discomfort. Later Aviointeriors continued to improve the idea. In 2018, at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, she presented an updated version - SkyRider 2.0. This is exactly what was discussed in the Daily Mail article that went viral.

The text stated that SkyRider seats now meet regulatory requirements, have passed safety assessments and low-cost airlines will begin selling standing-room tickets in 2026. At the same time, the author of the article did not indicate the source of this information and did not name the airlines that plan to equip aircraft with SkyRider seats - he only hinted that it could be Ryanair, citing old statements by O'Leary. However, the low-cost airline denied similar assumptions. Aviointeriors also published on their social networks a refutation: “SkyRider, which is often mistaken for a ready-to-install chair, is actually a conceptual prototype created back in 2012. It was a bold attempt to answer one of the aviation industry's most pressing problems - how to make the most of space and maintain ergonomics. But it shouldn't be taken literally: it was intended as a provocative example of design innovation, challenging ideas about what air travel might be like in the future. At the moment, SkyRider is not included in the company’s official product range.”

In addition, aviation experts doubtthat standing seats could, in principle, ever appear on airplanes, since they do not meet the standards European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). According to their requirements, each passenger over the age of two must be provided with a separate seat equipped with a seat belt, and in the event of an emergency, all passengers must be evacuated within 90 seconds. This will not be possible if the number of people on board increases, but the width of the aisles and the number of doors on the plane remain the same.

Thus, the viral news talks about a long-existing design prototype of vertical aircraft seats, which have not yet been put into production. The company that created these seats, Aviointeriors, has officially denied reports that they will appear on airplanes next year.

Cover photo: Daily Mail screenshot