One of my favorite trade fairs of the year is the annual Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, not only because it is so niche and specialized, but also because it gives us a look at where the airline industry is headed in terms of passenger experience. And really, what’s more important than that?
From seats to food to lighting – anything that anyone might ever interact with or use onboard a plane appears at the Expo. Sometimes the ideas are silly or mediocre – but others are truly innovative. The Expo’s Crystal Cabin Awards are especially interesting to follow because they pick out the best new concepts for airplane cabins, from high-tech jet lag solutions to innovative seating layouts that save space. Here’s a roundup of the winners from this year.
Attendees check out some of the latest business class seats at the Aircraft Interiors Expo 2019.
Gabriel Leigh
There’s also a Los Angeles edition of the Aircraft Interiors Expo, and it’s coming right up (September 10-12). They’ll be handing out a Crystal Cabin Award of their own, for the “Best Customer Journey Experience.” The finalists for that award have just been announced, and they offer an intriguing glimpse at what’s being developed for the aircraft cabins of the future (descriptions come from the finalists themselves.)
1. The “Connected Experience” application from Airbus.
An Airbus cabin mock-up featuring the “connected experience.”
Airbus
A life without apps is barely conceivable, from controlling the lighting in our living rooms to cashless payment for pizza delivery. The “Connected Experience” from Airbus brings this comfort to the aircraft cabin. “Pasta or chicken” – passengers can order either, direct from their smartphones. And the app can also confirm whether or not the cabin baggage will fit in the overhead locker, avoiding unnecessary suitcase stress. Thanks to the networked cabin, the crew can regulate temperature and lighting as well as communicate with passengers.
2. The “Voice-controlled Lavatory” from Diehl.
An airplane lavatory without buttons to press courtesy of Diehl.
Diehl
The “Voice-controlled Lavatory” from Diehl makes it possible to use the aircraft toilet without touching it, an attractive option both for passengers with restricted mobility and for the hygiene-conscious. From flushing the WC to operating the trash can, all essential aspects of the lavatory can be controlled by voice commands in several languages. And thanks to the modular system, this innovation from Hamburg, Germany can easily be retrofitted.
3. “LiFi Power” from Latécoère.
A visualization of LiFi technology from Latecoere.
Latecoere
As light as light: Latécoère already presented “LiFi Power”, transmitting data using light, at this year’s Paris Air Show. Crew communication could soon be wireless, and data transmission speeds up to one hundred times conventional wiring will bring a whole new dimension to passenger entertainment and connectivity. Air France has already integrated this innovation in one of its cabins.
The Airbus app sounds like the clear winner to me, for pure range of functionality. It’s something that could be useful to both passengers and crew throughout a journey. The voice-controlled lavatory seems like a nice enhancement, but is it really necessary? And I have to wonder how seamlessly it will work responding to various accents, languages and so on – not to mention that many airline passengers can’t even seem to figure out how to find their seat, so interfacing with advanced voice-recognition technology may be a stretch. Finally, transmitting data using light is a very interesting concept, but it’s a bit abstract. It would be interesting to find out more about what enhancements it brings to the passenger, if any.
For further insight into some of the things that made headlines at the Aircraft Interiors Expo this past April, you can listen to my radio report in this episode of The Globalist on Monocle 24.
