Impact of the Seat on Aircraft Passenger Comfort Experience in the Cabin Interior

The aircraft seat has been shown to impact passenger comfort experience in the cabin interior. A previous study defined passenger comfort experience in the cabin in terms of eight experiential themes. This study first investigated the possibility of differentiating passenger comfort and discomfort experience in economy class based on participants’ rating of those themes. No significant differences were found between the two concepts. Second, themes that were found to be most connected to the seat and participants’ respective concerns were highlighted. The theme ‘physical wellbeing’ was mentioned most frequently, followed by ‘peace of mind’, and ‘proxemics’. These three accounted for more than 70% of passengers’ seat experience. Among those, only the physical experience correlated with participants’ height, suggesting that to improve the passengers’ comfort experience, design efforts should go beyond the physical fit of the seat to the occupant’s body and explore passenger’s concerns for ‘peace of mind’ and ‘proxemics’.