AIX issue: From inception to inflight with LSEAT
This is a special feature from PAX Tech's May 2024 AIX issue, on page 26.
Passengers experiencing a laydown seat in Economy Class with LSEAT
Yves Hendrickx LSEAT's CEO tells PAX Tech that the idea
for the LSEAT Economy kit
came about from his own
desire to travel more comfortably and get a good night’s sleep in a standard Economy cabin.
Yves Hendrickx, CEO, LSEAT
“Travelling, often long distances, in
Economy Class and Premium Economy on trips for years, I realized there
was room for my legs below the seat
in front of me, but I could not access it
because of the seat shape,” Hendrickx explains. “I was still not able to find
a comfortable position to sleep.”
He adds that in his experience, sleeping inflight is one of the only ways to overcome jet lag, emphasizing the importance of quality sleep. Hendrickx found himself wondering how he could convert the chair-type seat that has been associated with commercial aviation for years to a laydown mode without paying the cost of a Business Class ticket.
This is how LSEAT was born.
Revolutionizing the Economy experience
“We had to find an applicable way for any Economy seat type and manufacturer,” Hendrickx explains. “Should they offer an innovative sleep mode, they must be able to deliver this service on any of their aircraft flying the announced route.”
Prior to LSEAT’s Economy kit, the solution to creating more legroom in Economy Class was to extend seat pitch, which Hendrickx says increases the airline seat cost but adds no related real comfort.
“The only possible solution appeared to be [inserting] a retrofit kit between seat cushions and seat structures,” he reveals. This presented the challenge of obtaining the necessary certification for the mechanisms to fly.
“That is the regulatory jungle where it was hard to find the way to get through,” Hendrickx continues. “It had to be a single innovation applicable throughout. It ended up as LSEAT.”
It took Hendrickx two and a half years to find the right combination of materials and design components applicable to almost all seats, but today, the widely patent protected LSEAT solution is getting ready to take flight.
Take a seat at AIX
The concept behind LSEAT is that Economy Class seating can become significantly more comfortable when a passenger can lie down and get a proper sleep on long journeys, combatting jet lag.
With LSEAT, the passenger density per floor surface does not change because the row pitch remains the same. The airline cost per passenger is unchanged, but Hendrickx says the opportunity to raise the ticket price for a good sleep is a high money maker, on full-service and low-cost carriers alike. He adds that the investment in the LSEAT Economy kit pays for itself in less than two months when ticket prices are increased on these seats.
LSEAT is exhibiting at the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) and can be found at stand 6E80 where its minor modkit will be on display. Airline representatives can test the additional LSEAT comfort and compare sitting in a chair-style airline seat with and without LSEAT.
“We wish visiting airlines to have the opportunity to initiate and evaluate tools to make decisions adapted to the operational environment,” Hendrickx concludes.
