Launched today, with the smell of fresh paint still in the air, Brussels Airlines inaugurated it’s new product: “The Loft” at Brussels International Airport. A fantastic slick new business lounge that puts the heart of Belgian excellence. With this new lounge concept, for which Brussels Airlines has cooperated with top brands and designers, Brussels Airlines “sets…
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Being invited to Aer Lingus’ media event in Dublin, we were treated to the unveiling of the airlines new business class cabin concept. We originally covered the initial design concept back in August, when the airline revealed them, but today marked the physical realization of the designs into fully working seats. Overseen by Factorydesign and…
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Back in April, Air France unveiled its new advertising campaign called “Air France, France is in the air” in the printed press, with coverage in 12 countries (France, Germany, Brazil, Canada, China, Spain, USA, Italy, Japan, Russia, Senegal and Switzerland) as well as on the internet, social media and on the radio. But here at TheDesignAir…
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This has taken us by surprise, as a traditionally non-innovatve travel brand, Thomson Airways today unveiled its radical and forward thinking five year vision to change the face of holiday flying through new state-of-the-art aircraft and innovative on-board product and service concepts. The two centre pieces of this new vision push the boundaries of economy…
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Air China, the second operator of the 747-8i passenger version, has just taken delivery of it’s new ‘Queen of the Skies’ with an interior designed by London based transport and hospitality design specialists, JPA Design. This is the same studio that brought one of the best seats to the skies, with the Singapore Airlines 777…
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Qantas, the day after their inaugural launch of their A380 service to Dallas Fort Worth, announced their brand new Darwin lounge for their premium cabin and valued frequent flyers. The new space is more than double the space of the previous incarnation, which whilst comfortable, wasn’t really anything to write home about. The new space,…
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We covered the A380 roll out for Etihad a few days ago, but their quick succession in rolling out their 787-9 colours shows the world how the livery transposes onto more regularly-shaped airframes. Last night the airline revealed their new 787-9, a proportionally more aesthetic aircraft, with a tail that has been circulating on social media for a few…
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The fact Etihad has a new livery is not a secret anymore, with tail fins on both the A380 and 787 surfacing a few weeks back on social media, with speculation rife on whether these were special one off liveries, or a sporty new look for the relatively young carrier. But this evening in Hamburg…
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We love it when airlines compete against each other to fight for passengers. The end result is a better experience for the travellers. Virgin Australia today announced their brand new business product which will start being rolled out early next year for both domestic and international routes on their wide body fleet. The familiar reverse…
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Liveries around the world are the calling cards for hundreds of different airlines. For some they are the passengers only interaction with the brand image of the airline, so as they park up at the gates of airports globally, they need to be able to communicate the values and concepts that each airline brand stands for.…
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The new Spirit planes. Spirit are the latest low cost carrier to revisit their branding, just a few days after both frontier and southwest, following a trend that TheDesignAir predicted last week. The new design fits with the new website and brand positioning that has been rolled out, offering a simple bold message, with a…
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Last year, we covered Thomas Cook’s new brand image, and it seems the carrier has now brought their interior cabin offering in line with their new brand. The new cabin brings the charter airline’s hard product inline with mainline carriers economy cabins. New food offerings, inflight entertainment and seats are going to make the journeys from…
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By Marisa Garcia | Engineers at Airbus’ A320 Family paint shop in Hamburg, Germany, just developed a unique methodology to radically improve the creative options available to airlines and brand managers by making it possible to directly print livery on the fuselage using inkjet printers–resulting in a faster and more efficient painting process which also allows…
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Sometimes when concepts come along at thedesignair.net we get excited, as they often push the boundaries of the ‘plain plane’ and give us reason to stop and re-evaluate what we consider as the standard experience for today. TEAGUE, with its 80 years of design history, teamed up with ultra-hi-tech Nike to look at the plane environment…
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Talk to any designer after a few drinks, and the usual story will come up, that “design is cyclical and everything that we see now has been seen before”. Bear with us a bit, but Southwest’s refreshed logo and livery speaks volumes to this concept. Southwest Airlines today, officially (compared to the leaked images on social…
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Let us start by saying, we can’t wait until Etihad finally decide to launch a hotel concept, not that they have ever hinted at doing such a thing. The reason being, is that they have spent so many years looking at the hospitality area to develop their entire offering, they have become experts in their…
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Just when we thought we were going to give up on hoping for a less cramped 787 economy cabin, JAL come along and show us that passengers should be treated to extra space, in every cabin. ANA did offer a 2 x 4 x 2 seating configuration in their 787s but that has been phased…
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Hawaiian Airlines certainly have been busy with their paint brushes and spray cans recently. The airline this year launched their O’hana by Hawaiian, with aircraft liveries designed by famous Hawaiian resident Sig Zane and his son, and have also recently launched their awesome co-branded, limited edition merchandise for the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s worldwide voyage. But their…
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This will be very welcome news to the majority of British Airways travellers, who travel with the airline’s real backbone of the fleet, on their 747s. The Queen of the Skies has been around for years, and is still one of the most popular aircraft for long haul travellers, but with the advent of the newer…
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Royal Jordanian, famous for their striking charcoal coloured livery, have recently received the first of their 787s, in a thedesignair.net exclusive, we reveal the images in full high resolution for you to salivate over. What is evident, from entering the aircraft is the sense of space. Royal Jordanian have been one of the first carriers…
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It’s been a while since we’ve seen some upcycling in the air, since Air France did something similar with their old advertising posters, and Virgin Atlantic who changed their seat covers into a variety of accessories and KLM who turned their old uniforms into carpets for their new World Business Class cabins. Emirates recently turned a…
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We haven’t covered much on Aer Lingus before, the carrier has pretty much kept a low-key approach to operations, offering angle-flat business class and fairly standard economy products. Not to say that’s bad, far from it, just not nescessarily ground breaking. It seems that’s all about to change, and the Irish carrier is now a…
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Macau, gambling Mecca to Asia has just gained a lounge to be proud of. Plaza Premium Lounge has just launched their brand new space at the airport. Amazingly, 5 million passengers fly through Macau International Airport every year. Plaza Premium will be the only lounge provider in Macau. The new 4,340 square feet lounge will have…
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When Qantas released images of their new lounge in Hong Kong back in April, we wanted to dig a little deeper into the design ethos of the new lounge, brought to us by Sumu Design, an architecture and interior design company based in Australia. We talk exclusively to Felice Carlino, the director of the agency…
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It’s that time again, and the judges have voted for their Top 10 Liveries for 2014. Each year the judges sort through the best of the best to find out what is hitting the mark. This year some familiar faces return, and some get booted out of the top 10, and there are even a…
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Read Part 1 here | Read Part 2 here | Read Part 3 here Part 4 | Economy. “Amazing! It’s like being on the Orient Express” I instinctively say when seeing the designs for the Economy Smartseat of Etihad’s new fleet. My interviewees all smile at that comment. I guess that must be called ‘hitting…
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Farnborough has already brought us our first bit of exciting design news – and we like what we see when it comes to Embraer’s E2! The new single aisle cabin designed by world-renowned design studio Priestmangoode for Embraer was unveiled today with a full size mock up at the world famous air show. The designs…
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Aircalin has taken the new delivery of its latest A320 as an opportunity to relaunch its livery. Another Pacific based airline, like Fiji Airways and O’hana by Hawaiian, has looked at its cultural roots to offer a unique and considered design, celebrating the culture of the New Caledonian islands it flies from. The original livery…
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Please read our first installment of our four part series here and second instalment here. Part 3 | Business Class. It’s possibly one of the hardest cabins to design. Customer expectations are high, margins are low and space is at a premium. Now with the advent of premium economy and the still-standing First Class sandwiching the most popular of premium cabins,…
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LAN and TAM have a current strategic plan to renew their premium spaces and provide a better travel experience for passengers. At the end of May, LAN and TAM inaugurated their new Preferential Check-in zone, located on the fourth floor on the west side of the International Airport in Santiago, Chile. The whole area features…
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