欧洲廉价航空瑞安航空公司近期表示将推出票价仅为4英镑的“站票”，乘客可以站着斜靠在一块板上，背部有软垫，肘部有扶手，胸部有安全防护横挡。该航空公司首席执行官表示，他们会将250架飞机内后十排的座位和两个卫生间拆除，改装为15排直立座位，这样每个航班就可以多运送50名乘客。

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European budget airline Ryanair says it is planning to allow passengers to fly standing up in vertical seats.

Air passengers might soon be able to fly from just £4, with ample（丰富的，足够的） leg room to boot. There’s just one small catch, it seems – they’ll have to stand.

European budget（廉价的） airline Ryanair says it is planning to allow passengers to fly standing up in vertical（垂直的，直立的） seats. Passengers would be restrained with a strap³（皮带） stretching over their shoulder, the airline said.

But the bizarre（奇异的） initiative ran into an immediate⁴ obstacle. European aviation safety regulators said the perches⁵（栖息处） would not meet safety rules.

Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary went ahead regardless with his announcement of plans to remove the back ten rows of seats from 250 planes and replace them with 15 rows of so-called ‘vertical seating’. Two lavatories⁶（厕所，盥洗室） at the back could also be removed, helping⁷ to allow up to 50 extra passengers on each flight.

Mr O’Leary told ITV1’s How To Beat The Budget Airlines that safety testing would begin next year, when a £1 charge to use toilets will be introduced.

Ryanair hopes to phase in the perches on commuter⁸ flights of up to an hour long before expanding them to all aircraft.

Aviation law states that people have to have a seat belt on for take-off, landing and turbulence⁹（骚乱，动荡） . A final decision on whether the perches meet the rules would rest with the European Aviation Safety Agency based in Cologne, Germany.

But last night it dismissed（开除，摒弃） the Ryanair plan as a stunt¹⁰.

‘To our knowledge, no airlines or other operators have made an application for stand-up seats,’ a spokesman said.

What they are proposing would be unprecedented¹¹（空前的） and highly unlikely to be certified¹² in the near future.

‘Stand-up seating would require changes to European rules for the certification of aircraft.

‘The current rules determine that each passenger has to be provided with “a seat or, if they are immobile, a berth¹³（卧铺，停泊处） ”. This is neither.’

The publicity¹⁴ has certainly succeeded in distracting attention from Ryanair’s controversial introduction yesterday of ‘big baggage’ charge rises.

Checking in a suitcase will cost up to £80 over the summer.

The vertical seating idea also comes days after the airline announced it was slashing¹⁵（猛砍，鞭打） its winter services by 16 per cent and carrying 2 million fewer passengers.

Boeing, which supplies Ryanair’s fleet of 273 737-800 passenger jets said: ‘We are not considering standing-only accommodations（住房，膳宿） .

‘Stringent regulatory requirements – including seats capable of withstanding（抵挡，反抗） a force of 16 times gravity – pretty much preclude¹⁶（排除，妨碍） such an arrangement.’

But Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said: ‘We are confident the seats can pass safety tests.

‘Boeing can put a man on the moon so I am sure they are able to make these a success. ‘Seats are lighter¹⁷ and the carbon footprint will be smaller, as more seats fit into a smaller area.’

Mr O’Leary has manipulated the media to publicise his airline in the past.

‘Standing room only’ was mooted¹⁸ back in 2006 when a prototype ‘perch seat’ was unveiled. On that occasion, Ryanair later dismissed the idea as ‘a joke’.