AirBaltic

You’ve been there. The fat guy in the next seat wants to tell you about his job, his dog, his ex-wife and his warts. You just want to sleep. Latvian national airline airBaltic understands your pain and has launched an innovative service called SeatBuddy that puts Mr. Flabby Blabby in a different seat.

“This new service, (allows) our customers to be seated next to like-minded travellers,” said Michael Grimme, airBaltic’s SVP Sales and Marketing. The system allows passengers indicate their “flight mood”, hobbies, interests, or social media activities when they book, and to indicate “Work”, “Business Talk” or the quiet of “Relax” as preferences. These are used to automatically select the closest match.