A budget airline in Colombia has renewed calls for “standing seats” to be permitted on aircraft to further drive down the cost of flying.

VivaColombia is the latest budget carrier to express interest in so-called vertical seating, akin to perching on a bar stool, which would enable airlines to cram more passengers onto flights.

“There are people out there right now researching whether you can fly standing up,” VivaColombia's founder and CEO William Shaw said. “We’re very interested in anything that makes travel less expensive.”

A post shared by VivaColombia (@vivacolombiaco) on Jun 22, 2017 at 12:37pm PDT

VivaColombia is not the first airline to consider stand-up flights.

In 2010, Ryanair’s Michael O’Leary expressed interest – and even doubted whether seat belts were necessary.

A plane is “just a b****** bus with wings”, he said at the time. “If there ever was a crash on an aircraft, God forbid, a seatbelt won’t save you. You don’t need a seatbelt on the London Underground. You don’t need a seatbelt on trains which are travelling at 120mph and if they crash you’re all dead…”

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) disagrees with O’Leary. It claims seatbelts are essential for passenger safety and said there would be many hurdles to jump through before carriers could launch “stand-up” flights.

The SkyRider was showcased at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in 2010 Credit: GETTY

“First the airline would have to ask the manufacturer of the aircraft to fit them in, then the manufacturer would have to get those seats approved,” said Richard Taylor, a spokesperson for the CAA. “Unless they can make it 100 per cent safe, it won’t be viable.”

Vertical seating – or “bar stools with seat belts”, as Ryanair dubbed them – was originally touted by Airbus in 2003. The idea has since been developed by the Italian firm Aviointeriors, which claimed its SkyRider perch could reduce space on an aircraft by 25 per cent.

So far no such seat has been approved by regulators. The quest for stand-up flights continues.