New Airbus design seats passengers on top of each other

The design puts passengers on a mezzanine level above others' heads. Photo / Airbus, European Patent Office

For Airbus, it seems there is no such thing as empty space, with the passenger plane manufacturer designing a mezzanine level that would stack passengers above others' heads.

Telegraph Travel reports the designs show how seats on a second level would allow space for reclining chairs with stair or a ladder leading to the upper seats.

Passengers would use stairs or a ladder to get to the upper seats. Photo / Airbus, European Patent Office

The patent, which was filed to the European Patent Office, states it was important from an economic point of view to make optimum use of the space available.

The patent said it was important from an economic point of view to make optimum use of the space available. Photo / Airbus, European Patent Office

"Passenger cabins are therefore fitted with as many rows of passenger seats as possible, which are positioned with as little space between them as possible.

WOULD YOU SIT ON THE NEW SEATS? TELL US WHAT YOU THINK

"In order to still more efficiently use the space in a passenger cabin of an aircraft, [the patent] proposes to position an elevated desk structure on a main deck floor in the passenger cabin of a wide-body aircraft for providing a mezzanine seating area in a substantially unused upper lobe of the aircraft fuselage."

This design may never be brought into fruition however as Airbus said it is just one of several hundred patents the company files each year.

The seats on a second level would allow space for reclining chairs. Photo / Airbus, European Patent Office

- nzherald.co.nz