Is “Poppi” the Airline of the Future?
Erica Berardi October 05, 2015
Dreaming of a faster boarding time to your seat, where you would receive special incentives for getting stuck in the middle? Teague concept airline Poppi sees the reality in the not-so-distant future.
Airplane design studio Teague presented a prototype of an “airline of the future” at the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) conference last week in Portland, Ore.
Poppi, the concept of which Teague developed over a five-month period, addresses current problems facing airlines and flyers with a three-tier solution. The airline would do away with cabin luggage, reward middle-seat flyers and offer buy-in memberships catered to passengers’ individual needs.
“We wanted to anchor our work in business realities and show what could happen within the next five to 10 years in a replicable way,” said Liddell.
The concept Poppi 777 would feature overheard “fedora bins” that only hold personal items, such as computer bags and jackets. Flyers’ luggage would be checked with RFID-enabled tags to assure passengers of the location of their bags.
“You can have personal items, your jacket, your computer bag, but having luggage that should be checked in the cabin is totally broken,” Liddell said in an interview with Fast Company.
Teague’s research found that ditching cabin luggage would expedite boarding by 71 percent, which would reduce the number of missed connections between delayed flights. Poppi’s smaller overheard bins could cut 3,000 lbs. off a 777 jet and save an airline up to $25 million a year in fuel costs.
Flyers adamant about bringing luggage onboard could join Poppi’s “Click Class” to obtain custom design bags that fit into the seat’s bay.
Poppi would also re-brand middle seats as a “promotional class” where big-name partners could pay to bring special amenities to the captive, middle-seat audience. Poppi imagines this through special gift boxes or in-air only privileges, such as the ability to play pre-release video games.
Finally, Poppi proposes a flyer membership program where flyers can pay for a certain number of trips per year. The membership program would also borrow from professional sports and loyalty programs through an app that would create a secondary marketplace for ticket re-sales and seat swapping.
[Photos: Teague]
Let the innovators innovate! The ingrained behaviours...well, the people who suffer from them will keep doing what they always have. Economics will win this argument, not forum debates. As for me, I always travel with just a lightweight carry-on (see http://www.onebag.com/ - a non-commercial site with tips and trick on how to do it), so it'd be a substantial change for me - but I'd be prepared to give it a try. Personally, I'd be more concerned with the lack of recline, which is a night-flight must-have.
Why do these MBA types persist in trying to change ingrained behavior in consumers every time one of them needs to promote their firm? US flyers are cheap. They want the lowest fare and will put up with being treated worse than cargo if they can save a dime. And getting rid of cabin baggage when it's a huge moneymaker for US airlines? Good luck with that one.