Self-cleaning airplane seats in store on certain business-class flight routes
The insides of airplanes aren’t necessarily the cleanest places to occupy. Micro-bacteria is atmospheric onboard, and there is rarely enough time between flights to do a deep clean on anything.
Recaro Aircraft Seating GmbH says it’s “developing a seat infused with a disinfectant that destroys almost every germ on contact within seconds,” according to BNN.
BNN mentions studies consistently showing that nothing in an aircraft’s cabin can be considered clean.
These new self-cleaning seats will be found on business-class seats on Europe-servicing aircrafts that have partnered with Recaro. The seats will have monitors that inform new passengers how well the seat has been cleaned.
“The quest for germ-free travel is part of an industry effort to make flying less taxing on the body as non-stop 17-hour marathons become common. As the tube-like design of commercial jets has barely changed in decades, seating has become the focus of comfort and a key point of difference.”
The business-class seats of the future are becoming more luxurious and ‘home-like’, often resembling living room and bedroom hybrids. Recaro’s seats are set to give massages and predict backaches.
The goal is customizable, individual spaces or, to “create a hotel room in the sky.”
Airborne disease
Recaro makes some 120,000 plane seats per year; Boeing Co. Dreamliners operating with Qantas Airways Ltd. have been fitted with seats made by the German company.
Not every airline chooses the option for the “antimicrobial coating” because it’s an optional feature at an extra cost. But airlines are flying longer routes at quicker turnaround speeds now, and anti-bacterial measures are needed more than ever to protect passenger health.
Contagious diseases can easily pass around a plane. According to BNN, after fliers on a 2008 flight “from Boston to Los Angeles contracted diarrhea, forcing an emergency diversion to Chicago, investigators concluded norovirus had spread in just three hours.”