Yesterday Eurowings, which is Lufthansa’s newest LCC brand, revealed its first aircraft painted in its new livery. The new-look carrier will start by mirroring the product on offer by sister-airline germanwings. Firstly, a few facts, Eurowings isn’t a new brand. It had been operating since 1994 as a regional carrier for parent company Lufthansa. The new brand is…
Read MoreAustrian Airlines has quietly announced its new brand in respect for the recent incident with sister airline Germanwings. However, the new brand signals a big change in the Austrian carrier. Marking the fusion of both Austrian Airlines and Tyrolean on April 1, 2015, the new livery, which will be rolled out across the fleet. Dubbed the ‘Red White…
Read MoreRecently there have been a few new amenity kits surfacing around the world, with Qantas and JAL recently releasing their kits. We take a look at two of the latest. Long gone are the cheap plastic looking bags. Airlines have invested heavily into beautiful keepsakes that will last for years. By partnering with some of the…
Read MoreFlight: TP85 Aircraft Type: A330-200 Class: ‘Previous Generation’ Business Class Route: LHR-GRU Flight time: 9:50 Seat: 2F Date: October 2015 http://www.flytap.com Best for: Passengers flying between Europe and South America. A high proportion of passengers on short haul flights connect on to Long haul flights. The crowd: Trans-European base – with a few Brazilian fliers too. Mix of leisure fliers and business travellers. Business…
Read MoreIn a new wave of patent submissions, British Airways are perhaps going back on their original herringbone concept that they submitted last year. The patent, filed last year but only recently published, shows off a wave of innovative seating arrangements. Whilst most of the patent references the seating configuration rather than the seats themselves, there are…
Read MoreLufthansa have been working on a new premium economy product for the past few years and have just announced they are to be introduced into their long haul fleet. Seen globally as a huge success since the invention from Virgin Atlantic, in 1992, many airlines now offer a class between economy and business class, as…
Read MoreLast 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…
Read MoreOur TheDesignAir Top 10 lists have undergone a revamp in 2014, and to aid transparency, our top 10 airlines will now have their rating out of 100 shown, as voted for and calculated by our judging panel. This month we cover our top 10 premium economy classes. With airlines investing more into their new mid-cabin classes, competition is…
Read MoreLiveries 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.…
Read MoreWith the world cup soon approaching, national airlines around the world are getting into the spirit and supporting their local teams. Here’s a recap of some of the special liveries over the past few weeks – how many have you seen? Let us know! Brussels Airlines ‘Red Devils’ Brussels Airlines went to town with their…
Read MoreWe were lucky enough to be invited to the official press unveiling of Heathrow’s brand new Terminal today, and the launch of the new ‘SlipStream‘ Artwork by Richard Wilson, which sits proudly in front of the building in a covered walkway connecting the rest of Heathrow and Terminal 2’s new car park to the…
Read MoreQatar Airways has announced the launch of a new daily all premium Business Class service from its hub in Doha to London Heathrow today. Mirroring the product currently run by British Airways from London City Airport. The new service will be the first of its kind in the Middle East, commencing from 15 May 2014,…
Read MoreQatar Business Class Over the past few weeks, Qatar Airways have announced a variety of new and upgraded products to add to their fleet. As their fleet has continued to grow, the airline has constantly invested into their onboard product, with such a variety of different aircraft, the business class product can vary dramatically, but…
Read MoreEvery designer’s idea of sheer panic is a blank sheet of paper. Imagine if this was given to you in the form of a completely empty A380 shell, and you were asked to create purely original ideas to fill it to the brim. It’s this blank piece of ‘metaphorical’ paper that was given to the…
Read MoreWith our return to our monthly Top 10’s, this month we celebrate the launch of several new First Class cabins around the world. Have they made our Top 10 though? Interestingly, as our judges went through the offerings, it became apparent that ‘International First Class’ cabins have changed over the past few years, turning from…
Read MoreThis year there have been many new lounges appearing around the world. Each offering a unique level of luxury and identity that has meant a broad and interesting collection of spaces in a variety of spaces. Excellent spaces that didn’t make the list, but should still be commended, include Virgin America’s ‘The Loft‘ in LAX,…
Read MoreFlight: CI062 Aircraft Type: B747-400 Class: Business Class Route: FRA-TPE Date: May 2014 http://www.china-airlines.com Best for: Affordable business class travellers wanting excellent service and good connections across Asia. Most likely to sit next to: Local Taiwanese travellers, or connecting European flyers utilising the Skyteam partnership. Business or pleasure: Pleasure. Without wi-fi onboard, and a service concept that makes you feel like you are…
Read MoreAir France has made a “Best&Beyond” promise to change it’s ways recently, shaking off some of the history it has steeped up over the years, and add a more contemporary ‘luxury’ feel to the airline. The French legacy carrier, like Lufthansa and British Airways, is fast becoming another bastion of European ‘luxury refined’ travel. Each…
Read MoreEmirates has always been a luxurious airline, and their first class is amongst one of the best in the skies, so no surprise that they have decided to include the award winning first class suite in their new executive jet. Many airlines have taken to providing an executive jet service, from Qatar Airways to Lufthansa,…
Read MoreIt seems that Lufthansa’s pet project ‘Direct 4 U‘ has finally come to fruition, with a launch of the ‘new’ germanwings penned in for July 1st 2013. Germanwings’ old livery, of fake metallic, lurid yellow and deep burgundy is going, and is being replaced with a fairly decent and modern Euro-white livery that seems a lot more…
Read MoreSo Thedesignair has been a little quiet recently, apologies, but safe to say we are back up and running at full steam as before. Here’s a small recap over what’s happened in the last 7 days away from the blog. From reporting on EX-YU Aviation news regarding some Ex-Yugoslavian airline brands, through to writing for UK’s…
Read MoreThis week, British Airways have joined KLM in charging for hold luggage, following suit of the low cost revolution running through the rest of Europe, and have now created fares that exclude hold baggage (on certain routes), making fares cheaper and more competitive against the major low cost carriers. Sadly now, the defined lines in…
Read MoreWhilst this hasn’t been officially released by Lufthansa, German newspaper Bild has reported through sources close to the airline that they are planning on launching a new low-cost unit (similar to the recent launch of IAG’s Iberia’s new Iberia Express) The new airline has been dubbed ‘Direct 4 You’ and will basically be an amalgamation of Germanwings…
Read MoreWith the recent update of both their AA IOS app, featuring slicker graphics, cleaner navigation and smaller more restrained typography; and the new check in kiosks starting appearing across the network with new updated graphics, it is clear to see that American have invested into a new brand. Safe to say it is more than…
Read MoreThis month we feature our Top 10 Lounges 2012. Competition is getting tough, as lounges are constantly improving year on year, but our selections are based on product offering, design aesthetic, unique offerings and synergy with the respective airline’s brand. Let’s commence with Number 10… 10. Emirates First Class Lounge, Dubai (DXB) A wine…
Read MoreWhilst there hasn’t been any real announcement of their product launch for the 777, here is a video on their YouTube channel of the interior of their new aircraft, joining their fleet in 2013. Whilst there is no sound, it’s easy to work your way through their 3 classes, whilst none of these products are…
Read MoreNorway’s Kristiansand might only have a population of 82,000 at last count, but a local Ice-cream businessman believes that the town needs it’s own airline. Not only that, but he’s willing to start the airline up himself. Now just to clarify, ‘Virtual’ airlines aren’t ones that you’ll find on flight-sim, but instead business and brand…
Read MoreOn the following day of the launch of Virgin Atlantic’s updated premium product ‘Dream Suite‘ comes news from troubled Lufthansa of a different nature. In an effort to try and become more efficient, curb spending and reign in the purse strings after a less than successful stint of turning bmi around, they are going to…
Read MoreEva Air have recently launched their newest business class seat, looking very much like the new Weber‘s ‘Cirrus’ reverse herringbone seat, as launched on Qatar and Lufthansa amongst others. Titled ‘Royal Laurel Class‘ this seat will be offered on their Taipei-New York service and will be on board in June 2nd 2012 in a cabin with…
Read MoreSince founding thedesignair.net in 2012, Jonny Clark has collaborated with magazines and websites around the world, and has become a recognised source of opinion in the airline industry. thedesignair.net continues to grow, partnering and consulting with some of the most prestigious brands around the world, whilst still maintaining an easy-to-digest design-led website based around airline…
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