No matter what class of travel you are in on an airplane – first class, business class, premium economy, or economy – there are times on long-haul flights when you really just want to get up and move around.
Teague and Nike had come up with a design a few years ago for an Athlete’s Plane, but this idea by Qantas CEO may be the closest thing for the average flyer. 🙂
Airline CEO Says Future Flights Could Have Exercise Areas
I have been on long-haul flights in first, business, and coach and I can absolutely tell you that I always feel like I want to get up and at least jog around! Of course, doing that on an aircraft is problematic. At the same time, I have mentioned to some people that I would love to do a treadmill run across the Atlantic sometime. 🙂
It seems that I am not the only one that would like to allow passengers some more space to move around and even exercise. Qantas CEO Alan Joyce made some comments about this in a private meeting (with the audio leaked to a media outlet) in regards to the use of cargo space on future airplanes.
Replace the Cargo Space For Passenger Use on Long-Haul Flights?
According to The Sydney Morning Herald, he said that Qantas is exploring doing something with a new class on the aircraft. This class would be located in the cargo hold and could have anything from berths (similar to trains) to exercise areas for passengers to get some workouts in.
He said, “Could some of the freight areas that we may not use be used as an exercise area?” Furthermore, Qantas has thrown it out there to both Airbus and Boeing about such a plan. This is in regards to the A350-900 and 777-8X that they need for their long-haul routes.
Due to the length of the flights, Alan Joyce was throwing out there that if they could not make the distance non-stop with a full flight and cargo load, they may desire to replace the cargo area with something like berths or exercise areas.
Personally, I love it. I would imagine it would be something that would either be an add-on at the time of check-in (for a fee) or limited to certain classes but I would definitely take advantage of it. On long-haul flights, I really never like the feeling of being somewhat restrained in the area of working out. In places like Etihad’s First Apartment, I have done push-ups and sit-ups in the privacy of my cabin but there is still not room to walk around for exercise.
I say, throw a few treadmills down in the cargo hold and charge for 30 minutes of use! Of course, there would have to be some safety restraints in place for turbulence but I would definitely enjoy getting a run in while flying above 35,000 feet!
Featured image source: Qantas. It is their 787, not one of the planes that Joyce was referring to.
Hopefully there will be showers too if people are going to use the treadmill and sweat.
True!
Lufthansa A340’s have bathrooms downstairs. So putting some kind of facilities down there is totally doable.