Passengers want more room, airlines want more seats. Kay O'Sullivan finds designs that might satisfy everyone.

Design Q is a British firm with an impressive track record in aircraft interior design. The company was responsible for Virgin Atlantic's much-vaunted Upper Class suite and, more recently, it was involved in the overhaul of all three classes for Cathay Pacific.

Now, Design Q is spruiking the benefits of what it is calling the MaxCabin, a radical configuration mirroring the face-to-face seating used on military planes.

Basically, Design Q has replaced conventional seat rows with inward-facing seats on either side of the aircraft, plus two back-to-back rows down the middle.

While the look may take some getting used to, there are plenty of examples of this configuration working, says Design Q's founder and chief designer, Howard Guy. “Seating sideways is common on other types of transport, buses, trains and even VIP jets,” he says.

The big plus for airlines looking to cut costs in a period of declining passenger numbers and profitability is that the MaxCabin will be cheaper to build and to operate, says Guy. He estimates it will seat 50 per cent more passengers and reduce costs by 30 per cent. The benefits for passengers are faster and safer boarding and exit.

The main drawback, however, is obvious from images of the prototype. The comfort level is low and even the designer is warning the MaxCabin is intended for short-haul flights up to a maximum of 80 minutes. And it will be a strictly BYO experience as there is not enough room for a trolley to move along the aisles.

Design Q will run a series of tests on the prototype in Britain next month.

Further afield, there are a growing number of innovative designers eyeing off the only unused area on wide-bodied planes, the overhead space.

Several of the concepts presented at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg earlier this year make use of a second storey. Most presentations centred on the premium classes and the majority incorporated ladders to access the top tier.

One exception was the Boston-based firm, Jacob Innovations LLC. The company's Emile Jacob says economy-class passengers will benefit most from his design, which elevates alternate seats in economy by the height of a conventional step. This increases leg space and the angle of seats, two of the most important factors governing passenger comfort.

“The 45-degree recline together with the footrest make the difference between the ability to sleep or not for most people,” he says. Passenger comfort levels are improved, but there is no loss of capacity across the economy cabin with the step system, Jacob says.

Indeed, Jacob's business-class model, which creates a second storey of seats – again using steps for access – has the potential to double the capacity of conventional business-class design and afford more privacy.








[smh]

German airline Lufthansa is relaunching its FlyNet in-flight broadband service. Lufthansa was the first to launch in-flight broadband in 2004, then powered by Boeing's Connexion system, which Boeing phased out in 2006. Now, in partnership with Panasonic Avionics, Lufthansa has announced that it will bring back FlyNet mid next year.

In the meantime, Lufthansa has found an innovative way to get its name pinged around the web. Through its free MySkyStatus service, fliers can sign up for flight status updates to be posted automatically to their Facebook or Twitter profiles. Available for flights on any airline, passengers enter their flight details and Facebook or Twitter login details beforehand, and MySkyStatus will post regular updates about their departure, altitude, location and arrival as they travel. Besides providing social media addicts with a cool new trick, MySkyStatus reminds us of FlightCaster for the helping hand it gives anyone expecting the arrival of a friend or coworker.

MySkyStatus taps into two growing consumer trends: the whole world is engaged in ongoing conversations that smart brands can be part of (foreverism), and 'real-time' is becoming an integral element of many products and services we use (nowism). In using this as a marketing tool (a short "powered by Lufthansa" is tacked on to every update), the airline smartly chose to open MySkyStatus to people flying with any airline, thereby initiating conversations that its competitors might not be part of.

Website : www.myskystatus.com

[springwise]

Luxury travel is reaching new heights every day with prestigious airlines vying to woo the elite travelers by offering more in-flight luxuries for effortless travel.

In the news is Etihad Airways, which installed its current first class seating in 2006, but have now gone for another opulent makeover with their new suite all in a short span of three years. The executive treatment includes a private cabin with sliding doors with Arabic-style detailing for privacy, and even more room than the existing Diamond First Class.

The seat now extends into a fully-flat bed (80.5 inches in length), and comes equipped with a built-in massager, lumbar support and adjustable headrest, as well as power sockets, an Ethernet port and audio jack. The unlimited dose of entertainment includes over 600 hours of audio and video on demand on a 23″ wide-screen LCD screen. The private cabins have enough storage space for your entire luggage with no unsightly overhead lockers.

The a la carte menu is another feather in the cap, so the travelers can enjoy rich delicacies from starters, a sumptuous main course to delectable desserts and choice of champagne and wines. There are a total of 12 suites in the flight. And, in case you have not traveled with Etihad before, the UK Etihad offers a free chauffeur drive up to 150 miles from in the UK from both London Heathrow and Manchester airports (business class 100 miles).




[bornrich]

Strongest brand relationship was found for the airline brands where digital consumers’ brand relationships were nearly twice as strong as those of their offline counterparts.

Other key categories where digital consumers had stronger relationships than non-digital consumers included IT hardware and software (48 percent stronger), credit cards (33 percent stronger) and fragrances (29 percent stronger).

The digital advantage was found throughout the world, with correlations to internet penetration (Japan and Taiwan (+ 36%) scored the highest average digital relationship differences).

* Digital consumers were defined as those who have bought from or searched for information about an individual category online.

** Millward Brown report was compiled using 2008 BrandZ data – a total of over 100,000 consumer interviews and over 8,000 brand measurements. These interviews covered 24 countries and an average of 15 categories per country.


[trendspotting]