Dynamic in flight seat management

An aircraft, comprising:

• a plurality of seats;
• an on board memory unit configured to store a dynamically updateable real-time current booking status of the plurality of seats, wherein the current booking status is changeable in temporal sub-units of a duration of a flight;
• wherein the on board memory unit is functionally connectable to an external memory unit that is external to the aircraft;
• wherein the current booking status of the plurality of seats is transferred from the external memory unit to the on board memory unit during boarding;
• an output unit configured to provide the current booking status to a user;
• an input unit configured to receive one or more requests from a user to change the current booking status of one or more of the plurality of seats;
• a boarding status determining device comprising a switch integrated into a door of the aircraft, wherein the switch is configured to trigger a change of the boarding status;
• a flight phase determining device configured to determine an actual flight phase of the flight which is divided into different flight phases, and further configured to provide the information of the actual flight phase to a Flight Management System;
• and
• an authorization unit;
• wherein the on-board memory unit is further configured to change the current booking status in real-time during the flight of the aircraft, the on board memory unit is functionally connected to the Flight Management System, and the Flight Management System is configured to inhibit the changing of the current booking status;
• wherein the change of the current booking status is made by requesting the authorization unit;
• wherein the authorization unit is configured to manage rights to control the type of amendments that each individual passenger can make;
• wherein the authorization unit is further configured to identify passengers and link passengers to user profiles stored in the authorization unit;
• wherein the authorization unit is further configured to link passenger authorization to a corresponding seat number and user profile via user authentication;
• wherein the authorization unit is further configured to regulate access and display of booking information only to authenticated passengers who are using an in-flight entertainment system;
• and
• wherein the output unit is further configured to, in response to user selection of an empty seat number displayed by the output unit for the current booking status, display a detailed schedule for the selected empty seat number, the displayed detailed schedule comprising:
• a plurality of temporal sub-units, each having a respective starting time and a respective ending time;
• an indication of whether the selected empty seat number is occupied or free for each of the plurality of temporal sub-units;
• and,
• if the selected empty seat number is occupied for a certain temporal sub-unit of the plurality of temporal sub-units as a passenger upgrade, an original seat number of a passenger who booked the selected empty seat number and certain temporal sub-unit as the upgrade.