MEDELLIN — First airlines got rid of the free nuts. Then they shrunk the seats. Now they’re thinking of getting rid of seats altogether?

According to the Independent, budget airline VivaColombia is giving new meaning to ‘no-frills flying’ by proposing that all passengers stand while they fly. It says by removing all seats from its planes, it would drive down the cost of fares and allow it to squeeze more passengers into each flight.

“There are people out there right now researching whether you can fly standing up. We’re very interested in anything that makes travel less expensive,” said VivaColombia’s founder and CEO William Shaw in an interview with the Miami Herald. “Who cares if you don’t have an inflight entertainment system for a one-hour flight? Who cares that there aren’t marble floors… or that you don’t get free peanuts?”

As ludicrous as no seats may be, it’s actually not a new idea. Back in 2003, Airbus pitched the idea of a vertical seat, while in 2010 Ryanair proposed standing areas on its planes, featuring “bar stools with seatbelts”, as then chief executive Michael O’Leary described it.

But there’s a reason why the idea of no-seats planes hasn’t come to fruition – it gets a lot of pushback from Civil Aviation Authorities, including Civil Aviation Director Alfredo Bocanegra. He expressed his disapproval on RCN radio, saying that “people have to travel like human beings”.

So tell us, do you agree with Bocanegra? Or would you be willing to stand on your flight to save a few bucks?