This month Emirates started providing an immersive cinematic experience in its lounges in Dubai International Airport by providing Skylights theatre headsets to customers. The headsets are being trialled in the Business Class lounge in Concourse B for the month of April and in the First Class lounge in concourse B in May. The introduction of…
Read More
Today saw Singapore Airlines reveal a brand new Regional Business Class product, fitted in its 787-10 Dreamliner aircraft, which will become the backbone of its regional network. Not shy of innovation and luxury, Singapore Airlines has invested US$350 million to equip their initial 20 787-10s with the new and impressive products. Flying routes up to…
Read More
2020 will see a new type of business class seat join Lufthansa’s fleet. Last week Lufthansa revealed its brand-new Business Class product that will be available with the roll-out of the Boeing 777-9. The new seat might look familiar, as it shares a lot of similarities with Acumen’s Optima seat design, which can also be found…
Read More
Starting December 1st Emirates will introduce a refreshed interior across its 777 fleet with the carriers updated “light and modern” colour scheme featuring refined textured panels, as well as new lighting and design accents. At the heart of the refresh is the long-awaited First Class product. As an industry first, the airline has adopted floor to ceiling…
Read More
Qantas has unveiled its first Boeing Dreamliner, the much anticipated aircraft that will “open up new routes and new levels of comfort for travellers.” The latest addition to the Qantas fleet, the 787-9 Dreamliner features next generation seating in Economy, a new Premium Economy and Business Class, with added space and a lower passenger count than…
Read More
Punta Cana is the latest airport to bring pool-side lounging to the airline environment. From December passengers travelling from the Dominican Republic can enjoy the best of both worlds; a pool to cool off in while waiting for a flight and uninterrupted views of the apron, with aircraft rubber duck-throwing distance from the pool (please…
Read More
Thompson Aero Seating have recently added another seat design to its famous and well-established Vantage range. Based on an original concept from Factorydesign, the seat was designed specifically for the single-aisle market, the new seat. Called the Vantage Solo, manages to provide all-aisle access fully-flat beds at a competitive 33″ seat pitch. The seat uses…
Read More
Qantas recently has been touting itself as a true Ultra-haul carrier. Cutting down it’s kangaroo route from four days and seven stops to a 17 hour direct flight on the 787-9. It has some of the longest routes in the world, and it’s long haul operation reflects the fairly isolated continent from the northern hemisphere…
Read More
It’s amazing what a winglet and a bit of a reshuffle in the cabin can do. Introducing the new Airbus A380plus. While the remodel includes a 4% reduction in fuel burn and a 13% decrease per seat, the aircraft manufacturer is touting no reduction in comfort, even though it is adding 80 extra seats. How…
Read More
Acumen and Zodiac’s Optima seat at first glance, might seem familiar. There’s good reason. It was actually developed in tandem with United’s Polaris product. The seats are basically non-identical twin brothers in the seat manufacturing world. The product has been designed as a logical response to the demands and needs of airlines and passengers alike. The seat boasts…
Read More
First, let us start by saying, we welcome – nay applaud – investment into a new Club World product for British Airways. The past few months and steerage of new CEO Alex Cruz has seen consistent cuts to the product, at a time when it needed serious investment. Ticket prices have been constantly higher than…
Read More
In a continued drive to tackle the imposed electronic ban on certain flights to the UK and the US, airlines are working around the issue of bringing aboard nothing larger than a smart phone in a myriad of ways. Turkish Airlines has quickly adopted a simple fix, similar to Emirates, by allowing passengers to use…
Read More
While Business Class and First Class seats can flaunt a wealth of bolt-ons and differences from their competitors – from sliding doors to fully flat beds – the sheer scale and economics of the economy cabins means that the product cannot really change very far from the product set we’ve seen in the skies for…
Read More
Yesterday saw the joint launch of a new modular passenger transport concept from Airbus and Italdesign at Geneva’s 87th International Motor Show. ‘Pop.Up’ – as it has been dubbed – is a fully electric, zero emission concept vehicle system designed to relieve traffic congestion in crowded megacities. “Pop.Up envisages a modular system for multi-modal transportation that makes…
Read More
Working with McCann Worldgroup, Cathay Pacific created the “Artmap Project” an innovative birthday gift for over one million Marco Polo members. An ingenious algorithm means that each Marco Polo Club member will receive a bespoke work of contemporary Chinese art via email on their birthday, inspired by their own travels with Cathay Pacific and Cathay…
Read More
The future is a little closer this month, with Boom taking a leap forward and presenting their XB-1 1/3rd-scale ‘little brother’ version of the ideal next generation supersonic passenger jet. ‘Baby Boom’ as it has been dubbed, may not be taking flight until next year, but it will pave the way for the new Concorde of the…
Read More
The Aircraft Interiors Expo may have come to a close this year, but the event, like every year, shows the very best of the best of aircraft seating and cabin enhancements. 2016 may have brought a variety of new seats to the market and obviously the acclaimed Airbus Airspace cabin, but there was one stand…
Read More
The Boeing 737 MAX 8 flew for the first time yesterday in Seattle as the aircraft manufacturer makes its final stretch to get the aircraft program into the skies. The 737 MAX program achieved this milestone on schedule which begins a comprehensive flight-test program leading to certification and delivery. The aircraft is the first to utilise the latest…
Read More
Today, JetBlue showed off the first renderings of their restyled cabin which “will enhance the JetBlue experience to meet the needs of travellers today”, including a greater focus on connectivity, comfort, and space. This marks JetBlue’s first complete redesign of the interiors on its A320 fleet since it launched in 2000 and the differences, while perhaps…
Read More
Even to a seasoned 737-800 Senior First Officer who has done their countless number of walk-arounds, the game of spot the difference is still mighty hard with the 737 MAX 8 which was rolled out today (December 8th) in Renton, Washingston State, USA. If you click on the image above, you’ll notice the variety of tail fins…
Read More
British Airways have never been shy of embracing new technology. They were the first airline to create a digital app back in 2008. That year, some 118,000 added it to their device and in 2015, it has topped the five million mark. During the last seven years the airline has updated their app with new functionality 32 times,…
Read More
Alitalia today announced their latest wave of improvements to the passenger experience. Guests on all Alitalia flights can now use their phone to check emails or send text messages immediately after their flight has landed, while the aircraft is taxiing to the terminal. A new “Gate to Gate” procedure to allow the use of personal electronic devices has…
Read More
Emirates last week announced that all new 777-300ER and A380 deliveries will be outfitted with enhanced IFE screens and technology, allowing passengers to flick through a massive 4,300 hours of entertainment. That is virtually half a year non-stop of watching a TV, meaning it is practically impossible to watch the whole entertainment offering, even if…
Read More
Move over Emirates and Panama City, there’s a new ultra-long-haul flight on the horizon. Announced yesterday, Singapore Airlines has signed an agreement to be the launch customer for a new ultra-long-range variant of the Airbus A350 aircraft, enabling the resumption of non-stop flights between Singapore and the United States replacing the carrier’s older A340-500 services that…
Read More
Domestic travel in the US is really heating up now, with a new wave of interiors just launched by United. Starting with the A319 next week, the new interior will be rolled out on A319s, A320s, 737s and 757s throughout 2016. The new interiors are custom created for the airline as it pushes hard to…
Read More
Those of you who have flown on Qantas, may be familiar with their fairly hefty inflight magazine Australian Way. Whilst this may be a meaty enough read for most of their domestic flights, what if you have to Kangaroo hop your way to The States or Europe? Well, now there is good news. If you…
Read More
Hawaiian Airlines has officially launched a beta of their new website, currently accessible to their HawaiianMiles members. The site will be rolling out in phases, with a full launch is expected later this summer. This is a complete revamp of a site that wasn’t terrible, but had gone through a few skins of what was fundamentally the same website. The…
Read More
It’s always good to see a new herringbone seat enter the market, and yet most passengers may not even know the array of seats on offer. The wealth of herringbone seat designs have a myriad of differences. Designed by London based JPA Design and Jamco, these brand new seat designs (first seen at AIX in Hamburg this…
Read More
No, these aren’t designer office pieces of furniture, they are the latest premium economy seats by Acro Aircraft Seating, designed by UK based Factorydesign. Conceived with the future demands of airliners in mind, these ergonomic beauties have embraced the simple fact that comfort should be found in the spaces between the seats. One of the many ‘diamond patterned’…
Read More
Here at TheDesignAir, we love a good app. Qantas recently announced their introduction of their new Apple Watch App, weeks before the must-have travel accessory goes on sale worldwide. Using the app, customers will receive notifications telling them of gate changes, what carousel from which to collect their baggage and up-to-the-minute information of their journey. Qantas Executive Manager…
Read More
