Airbus Designs New Cabin for Economy Travelers
Jennifer Billock March 25, 2016
In 2017, Airbus is launching a new cabin interior design with a more modern appeal.
Airbus is on a mission to become an easily recognizable household name, along the lines of Apple and Rolex. In order to do so, the company is debuting a new cabin design in 2017 called “Airspace.” The goal is to create a relaxing atmosphere for passengers through the use of ambient light, soft shapes, LED lighting and repetitive lines.
“When a passenger is on board an A330neo or A350, they will start to think ‘this is an Airspace cabin,’” Kiran Rao, Airbus’ EVP of strategy and marketing, told Air Transport World. “It will be in the touch and feel. It will be marketed and branded on an individual basis by each airline, but the canvas they will start from will be an Airspace canvas.”
According to Digital Trends, other enhancements to the cabin include wider seats, bigger overhead compartments, bigger bathrooms, more spacious areas under seats for travelers’ feet, and beveled windows that make the plane’s interior look bigger. The ambient LED lighting is meant to help with jet lag by working in different color temperatures, which affect the sleep-wake cycle.
The company plans to focus on economy seats, hoping to transform that section of the plane into something as posh as first and business class.
“We want passengers, when they book, to check for an Airspace cabin,” Francois Caudron, Airbus’ SVP of marketing customer affairs told Air Transport World. “Our dream is that passengers will go on a website, see that it is the Airspace cabin and buy their ticket.”
[Photo: Airbus]
You want me to book Airsspace? Three simple ways 21 inches wide seats 34 inches pitch A seat cushion that is minimally soft. Here you go. Lights, pressure and the rest means NOTHING if you keep cramming my butt in a broom closet with a seat deaigned by McDonalds circa 1980 to ensure patrons get out of the restaurant as soon as possible.
As everyone else has pointed out -- the airlines have to buy it. And they're not going to. All the airlines care about is profit and that's it. We're a long way from the halcyon days where airlines competed on service in Y.
They seem to be trying to be responding to the new Bombardier C-100 by creating imaginary interiors. In software this is called vaporware - stave off the competition by imagining what people will believe and promising it until the competitor is killed off..
Absolutely marketing hype. It means nothing if the airlines don't adopt this as is. Giving me more fancy, dance lighting means nothing. Give me at least 18-18.5" seat and 34" pitch and I will seek out Airspace cabins. Otherwise forget it.
Let's see... Didn't one US major just present its "enhanced" wide-body economy "experience" as 3-4-3? Or maybe it was 2-5-2? Or was it 3-5-3? Whatever.... Unless this is being sold as "economy plus" or premium economy, it will not be seen stateside until hell freezes over or airlines have to compete again.