You Could Soon Be Able to Nap in the Cargo Holds of Planes

Stacey Leasca
Updated
Long-haul flights are no picnic, unless of course you’re in first class in a lie-flat bed. For most of us, however, the cost of booking that luxury travel experience is well out of reach, but Airbus is hoping to change that with new “nap pods.”

Long-haul flights are no picnic, unless of course you’re in first class in a lie-flat bed. For most of us, however, the cost of booking that luxury travel experience is well out of reach, but Airbus is hoping to change that with new “nap pods.”

Airbus is currently working with seat manufacturer Zodiac Aerospace to design new lie-flat beds to fit in the lower-deck cargo areas of their planes, Bloomberg reported. Guests can go in, snooze for a bit, and return back to their seat for a movie or a meal. Though the beds won’t be available until 2020, they would most certainly be a game-changer.

According to Airbus officials who spoke during a conference in Hamburg on Tuesday, the sleeping berths would be installed as modules that could quickly be moved out of the way for regular cargo fittings during an aircraft’s typical airport turnaround.

It really may be an easy plan to implement when you consider Airbus isn’t reinventing the wheel. Holds have actually been sued for some time as cabin crew rest areas for long-haul flights.

And Bloomberg notes the idea appears to be catching on: Qantas Airways Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Alan Joyce said they too were thinking about ways to make long-haul flights more comfortable for passengers.

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“Our research project with Qantas includes strategies to counteract jet lag, including on-board exercise and movement, menu design and service timing, pre- and post-flight preparation, transit lounge wellness concepts and the cabin environment,” Professor Steve Simpson, a consultant with Qantas who is working to make those hours-long flights a bit better, previously told Travel + Leisure.

Sure, we’ll have to wait a few years until these nap pods become reality, but that doesn’t mean you need to suffer through your flight. Before boarding your next long-haul flight to a magical destination make sure to stock up on all the right gear including ear plugs, sleep masks and more, and read up on one engineer’s amazing tips to making economy way more comfortable.