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You are here: Home / AIX19 / The Butterfly Seat – Examining the Advancements

The Butterfly Seat – Examining the Advancements

09/05/2019 by Kevincm

The Butterfly Seat has been a concept that has been going around the past few years – with the ability for a pair of seats to act as three things:

  • A premium Economy seat, seating two people
  • A business class seat, seating one person
  • A business class bed

Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design
Butterfly Seat concept shown at the Airbus booth, 2017

There were previous demonstrations of it at Airbus last year.

butterfly seat

This year, it moved to a new vendor Tapis Corporation, as Paperclip Design have been working on improving the design.

Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design
The Butterfly Seat with Tapis leathers

  Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design
With the window seat turned into a bed/rest area

Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design
AS two business seat. Note the divider – it can go up in a clever design move

Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design
As a full divider.

With the changes in design, there were issues with the weight and the complexity of the design. As a result, the design has been simplified a lot.

The seat now uses a 3-point seatbelt, with the belt across the chest to be used in takeoff and landing, with a standard two-point lap-belt at the rest of the time.

The seat itself is wider than in previous demonstration, with a 75” bed in total, finished in Tapis Corporations Ultrasuede

Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design
The seat in full bed mode

The butterfly seat is one that has interested me – namely as it would allow you to deliver a possible five class system in a narrow body aircraft, with the flexibility to change at will with two types of seat installed into the cabin

Butterfly Seat - Paperclip design

Five Class? Well. 3 classes and 5 fare subsets.Take the following example:

  • 1 to 2 rows of bed seats using the butterfly seat (one person per seatset)
  • 1 to 2 rows of premium economy seat using the butterfly seat (two persons per seatset)
  • 6-8 rows of extra space economy
  • A majority of normal space economy seats
  • A few rows of cheap economy seats with compromised legroom

This model in some respects is out there already (think American Airlines A321 used on transcon – which holds four classes using three seat types).

There remains a lot of flexibility in this end of the market, and designs like the Paperclip Butterfly seat a concept that airlines should be thinking about in terms of how they could reduce differing equipment types on a plane, and how to market it

With convertibility options, it offers a fascinating idea of how to re-think a three class product in the air.

Thanks to Jamie Lee of Paperclip Design who walked me through the updated seat at Aircraft Interiors Expo and Tapis Corporation for hosting.


Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond – Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, with in-depth coverage, unique research as well as the humour and madness as I only know how to deliver.

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Filed Under: AIX19, Seating

Comments

  1. Patrick says

    09/05/2019 at 10:31 am

    For that love of all that is proper… tell that person in the first picture to keep their shoes on.. Or at least wear socks!!

    • Kevincm says

      12/05/2019 at 6:19 am

      Its tough to tell a doll what to do… 😉

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