Both Boeing and Airbus concentrated on airframe sizing, route structures and fuel efficiency to maintain profitability. Meanwhile, private companies took on the challenges of imagining aircraft cabins of the future. These suppliers have designed seating configurations like nothing seen before that provide a look at what future cabin interiors might look like. Their concepts suggest how to creatively maximize the use of space on board commercial aircraft while also providing customers with an enjoyable flying experience.

Zephyr Aerospace is one supplier which has reimagined onboard seating. The company is working to change economy class seating as we know it. It has designed a revolutionary double-decker seating concept in which seats are stacked upon one another, allowing every economy class seat to have the capability to lie completely flat. Currently, lie-flat seats are only offered in business and first-class cabins.

And it is not the only new seating design within the airline design industry. The company Paperclip Design has created a seating solution to help airlines with issues such as having too few or too many business class seats. The design is called ‘Checkerboard’ and its goal is to provide seating flexibility that can be made in a matter of minutes.

Airlines are consistently faced with the problem of predicting the demand for how many first class, business, or economy seats a specific flight may need and filling those seats to satisfy each customer’s need. With the same airplane often being used on different routes throughout the day, that only further complicates space management.

Read more: Airline Seating Gets Reimagined