“British company the Premium Aircraft Interiors Group (PAIG) has developed a “ying-yang” seating pattern in which neighbouring seats face in opposite directions.

The new layout removes the need to leave a gap between seats for an armrest under the traditional shoulder-to-shoulder seating plan.

Instead, one person’s shoulders would be in line with the neighbouring passenger’s knees and each would have their own armrest…..”

“British Airways says rear-facing seats developed by PAIG for its business-class cabins had proved popular with passengers and it would consider them for economy class.

Backward-facing seats are believed to be safer because, rather than being thrown forward in a crash, rear-facing passengers are pressed back into their seats.

The layout is being unveiled at an exhibition in Hamburg, Germany, this week.”

You can discuss the merits or demerits of such a system amongst yourselves. But it would seem to me that if someone in the middle seat were to sneeze, they’d effectively sneeze all over their forward facing seat mates. And I still don’t get the “armrest” argument. It still appears to me that there would be a fight for the center armrests.