Few experiences in air travel are worse than being cramped in the middle seat on a flight, fighting complete strangers for some arm rest space. Molon Labe Designs is seeking to change that common fact by making the middle seat three inches wider and giving each passenger dedicated armrest space.
Known as the "Stagger Seat," the design involves placing the middle seat slightly behind the other two seats in a section, so that the passengers' elbows and shoulders are staggered. Moreover, this design allows for the aisle seat to be pushed on top of the middle seat when not in use, allowing for wider aisles.
The customer isn't the only one standing to benefit from this design; it also results in reduced costs for the airline.
The design increases the aisle width to more than double, from 20 inches on a regular flight to 42 inches. These wide aisles make for faster boarding, reducing the amount of time aircraft spend on the tarmac, known as turnaround time.
"You have an aircraft that's operating one to one-and-a-half hour flights. They're doing seven of those a day. If we save 10 minutes on every turnaround, they now get a whole new flight," the CEO of Molon Labe Designs, Hank Scott, told CNBC's "The Rundown" on Friday.
This feature could prove particularly effective for short budget flights. The company first introduced a short-haul low-cost airline version of this known as the "Side-Slip" seat, which is thinner and does not recline.
"The Side-Slip seat is for… shorter flights, and the airlines really want to optimize the amount of time they spend flying. And the slowest part of getting back in the air is how quickly they can load and unload passengers," Scott said.
First introduced in 2012, the Side-Slip seat will be crash tested by the Federal Aviation Administration later this year, according to Scott. The FAA has bilateral agreements with countries like China and the European Union, and Scott says he expects the first delivery in November this year for the Side-Slip.
Scott told CNBC that his company is "talking to some of the big aircraft manufacturers" who have shown some interest in supporting Molon Labe Designs.
Here's what the Side-Slip seat looks like: