Unveiled today, Boeing's new ‘Space Bins’ could give travellers 50% more storage space than the current ‘Pivot Bins’ found on Qantas' and Virgin Australia's newer Boeing 737 aircraft.
Capable of squeezing in six bags per locker – up from the Pivot Bins’ four – they’ll provide more room for weighed-down passengers to stash their carry-on gear.
They won’t come standard, rather an optional extra on factory-fresh Next-Generation Boeing 737s and Boeing 737 MAX aircraft.
Virgin Australia has 23 of the Boeing 737 MAX jets on order with delivery planned for 2019-2021, although it’s too early to tell whether the airline will shell out for the Space Bins.
Launch customer Alaska Airlines is set to pioneer the Space Bins on all new, capable aircraft delivered from late 2015, at which time the Space Bins will be made available as a retrofit for existing Next-Generation Boeing 737s.
Keep up to date with the latest news for business travellers and frequent flyers: follow @AusBT on Twitter.
Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
26 May 2011
Total posts 19
I applaud the aircraft manufacturers for these innovations but paraticularly in the US, all this does is increase the amount of luggage bring on board. American travellers bring on muliple bags onboard (enough for your average Aussie to travel overseas for 4 weeks) which slows everyone down and the poor souls who bring less than the allowance never have any room. They shouldn't be encouraging this - airlines should focus on decreasing the limits and enforcing them.
28 Oct 2011
Total posts 645
max stowage can only be achieved in ANY locker if passengers put their damn luggage in the CORRECT way!!!! .... Monkeys could be trained to stow luggage correctly.....but it seems to be incomprehensible for humans to do the same
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
29 Nov 2013
Total posts 475
With you 100% UTR...
Remember the early days of bl**dy Krispy Kreme and the passengers who got all sensitive about their frickin sugar with some donut thrown in - Oh, it can't be stacked or have bags near it - it needs a locker all to itself...
08 Jul 2014
Total posts 13
100% agree. You will never ever get people to perfectly stow luggage as shown in the photo above. We don't need to encourage even more luggage in the cabin
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Boeing