Aircraft giant Airbus has taken out a patent for bench-like aeroplane seats designed for obese passengers. 

The "reconfigurable" seats fit two larger passengers but can also be adapted to fit a family of four. 

When two people occupy the bench, a table folds down to create a barrier between the two passengers. 

In its patent filing, Airbus hinted at its thinking, writing that "optimum utilization of the space available in a passenger cabin is of major economic importance.”

The aircraft maker added that “the cabin layout, particularly the layout of the passenger seats arranged in the passenger cabin, such as the allocation of a row of passenger seats to business class or to economy class for example, should be as flexibly, rapidly and easily re-configurable as possible."