A Look at The Future of Aircraft Cabins
Luciana Mangas July 22, 2016
An exploration of what could be in the near future for in-flight experience.
Faced with crowded airports and uncomfortable, cramped seats, several airlines around the globe are trying to make the passenger experience more pleasant by investing in new technology for entertainment and comfort, according to a CNN reports.
Many carriers already offer in-flight entertainment that can be enjoyed through the use of passengers’ own mobile handsets. “By syncing with handsets, their seats know a passenger’s preferences and can even restart a movie at the exact place where they left it in the previous flight,” CNN reported.
A Dutch company called AirFi is helping to equip low-cost airlines with entertainment systems. Their portable wireless system allows passengers to access entertainment content on their own devices, doing away with the need for in-flight entertainment systems. AirFi CEO Job Heimerikx claims that it’s a cost-effective and flexible way to provide quality entertainment content to the short flight market.
“Passengers can access a broad range of movies and other sort of entertainment, but they can also use it to order food or shop duty free. It’s like an evolution of the traditional inflight magazine, but just as it happens at online stores, you can make it really personal,” Heimerikx says.
Virtual Reality is another amenity that some airlines across the world want to implement as an in-flight feature. It provides another form of entertainment and can also be used to calm passengers who are afraid of flying.
[Photo: AP]
It's all meaningless until the airlines stop shrinking the seats and the aisles. What's next? Trans-oceanic strap hanging? Oh, but we'll all have virtual reality glasses that project movies so that we won't notice how uncomfortable we are.
If the future of aircraft cabins is just a new phone app, the future is depressing. To quote you back to you, "Faced with crowded airports and uncomfortable, cramped seats..." And all they can do is give us a new app? How about a comfortable seat that doesn't squeeze the soul out of us?
Here is a radical idea. Please create an economy seat with a soft, not hard, feel on our rear-end, and a vital minimal amount of elbow space, instead of considering your fellow human beings as sardines in a can. Absolutely radical idea that would delight customers everywhere, in every language. Best of all, take my idea as your own for FREE. You are welcome.