FUTUR E V I SION
aircraftinteriorsinternational.com
MARCH 2020 077
The industry goes through phases of pulling back
or doubling down on particular corners of the PaxEx
Square. Specific delays due to the uniqueness of a seat?
Fine, next time we’ll take something less customised. Cost
blowouts? That’s what we’ll look at for our next seats.
Our seat is a bit boring and samey? Okay, next time
we’ll go for something more unique. But here’s the rub:
if uniqueness isn’t a priority with the number of
airlines that use common colours like red and
blue, we can end up with Airline X’s seat looking
like a slightly darker blue version of Airline Y’s.
One solution to this problem is the growing trend of
seatmakers creating zones of customisability to at least
make seats look different and, in places, add functionality.
This is a trickle-up situation from economy, where
Recaro, for example, offers the ‘multifunction bridge’ on
its CL3710, a seatback panel that can house an airline’s
choice of power supplies, NFC scanners, and so on.
In the business class world, this ends up looking like
a series of areas in which the fundamental seat stays the
same, but there are areas of shrouding outside the critical
passenger certification zone that can feature on-brand
shapes, mouldings, materials and options.
TIME TO MARKET NEEDS TO BE
DRASTICALLY LOWER
Designing, certifying, marketing and producing anything
that is to be installed inside an airline cabin is difficult,
complex, and often fraught with unpredictability. The
process still needs to move faster, not least because the
world around us is moving faster, and the novelty lifespan
when a seat or other product can be called ‘new’ is getting
increasingly shorter.
Barriers to entry into this industry, especially around
the knowledge required to certify products via static and
dynamic testing, are substantial. That’s true both for new
products from existing suppliers and for new suppliers.
In real-world terms, combined with industry
consolidation, that means that there are fewer players
to bring new seats in particular into the market. At this
point, the world of passenger experience hard product
has largely coalesced around economy class seats in
“ Barriers to entry into this
industry are substantial ”
ART OF SELF
PROMOTION
The aircraft interiors industry is not
particularly good at advertising its
successes in improving passenger comfort.
Partly, this is because the industry has never
done it before, partly it’s to avoid drawing
attention to the fact that seat pitches are
shrinking, and partly it’s because there isn’t
a universally agreed need to do so.
Some airlines are trying to make inroads
here: Spirit, for example, when highlighting
the space-saving characteristics of its latest
Acro slimline seats, moved away from pitch.
But compare this progress with that of
Airbus and Boeing, which have done a good
job highlighting the benefits of their aircraft.
ABOVE RIGHT: BOEING HAS
INDICATED THAT THE 777X WILL
INTRODUCE SEVERAL PASSENGER
EXPERIENCE ENHANCEMENTS
BELOW: SPIRIT’S CEO IS
PROMOTING COMFORT FACTORS
OTHER THAN SEAT PITCH. SEE P35
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