TheDesignAir is pleased to share a free-to-download White paper on the ‘Future of Travel’, reflecting on the changes to the passenger experience post-Covid19. Founder of the site, Jonny Clark, explores gradual shifts and changes we can expect to see across the airline industry, both on the ground and in the skies. The major changes we…
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London-based design studio Priestmangoode has just opened a ‘Get Onboard: Reduce. Reuse. Rethink’ exhibition at the Design Museum in London. As we just highlighted in our questions surrounding amenity kits, there is an increasing movement to explore ways that we can use design thinking and material innovation to address the vast issue of waste in travel,…
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Taking a leaf out of Etihad’s book, Singapore Airlines has launched a breathtaking brand new vision for their A380s including new First, Business, Premium Economy and Economy products, showcasing how for SIA, the A380 is certainly still an important part of the carrier’s future. Riding on the theme of “Space made personal, experience the difference”,…
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As from 1st October for three months, the triple Michelin-starred chef Arnaud Lallement will be joining the Air France team. For the first time on board La Première (The carrier’s first class cabin), he will create two new starters and seven new main dishes to delight and surprise its passengers. “Becoming a chef was a…
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Japan Airlines is the latest airline to invest in new amenity kits for their first class passengers. The new kits will feature on all International First Class routes, starting today, March 28, 2017. Porsche Design, the designer label that created the new kit, isn’t new to the airline industry, they’ve already worked with Malaysia Airlines in the…
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The latest addition to a wave of updates to Qatar Airways, the carrier has launched newly-designed sleeper suits, bespoke for First Class passengers, individually styled for men and women. Designed by UK based The White Company, the men’s sleeper suit is designed in a charcoal grey marl, and the women’s in a contemporary, mid-grey, both are made…
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Part three of TheDesignAir’s exclusive series on the making of Cathay Dragon. Read parts one and two. This week brought a brand new airline officially take to the skies, with Dragonair now becoming Cathay Dragon. The new airline now aligns itself with its big brother Cathay Pacific across many passenger experience touch-points while still maintaining…
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Holy smokes, another safety video from Air New Zealand? Hell, why not? The previous, dubbed “Safety Old School Style” features America’s sweetheart comedienne Betty White and a cast of golden oldies. Past Air New Zealand safety video hits have included the Hobbit-themed ‘An Unexpected Briefing’, ‘Fit to Fly’ starring fitness guru Richard Simmons and more recently…
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Sister Airline to the award winning Cathay Pacific; Dragonair, the regional / medium-haul carrier has just announced its cabin offerings to lift the airline’s level of luxury. The most recent announcement is the launch of their First Class offering. If the seat looks familiar, that is because it is identical to Cathay Pacific’s new long-haul…
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Our good friends at Fiji Airways, winner of the best livery 2013 in our Top 10 Liveries have now extended their brand to the domestic and regional carrier Pacific Sun. Pacific Sun, since the new re-branding of Fiji’s International airline, has been at odds with the earthy colours and sophisticated cabins, although obviously the friendly and…
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Our friends, and one of our favourite airlines, Air New Zealand are no stranger to producing safety videos, in fact they produce a new one with alarmingly increasing regularity. The latest, dubbed “Safety Old School Style” features America’s sweetheart comedienne Betty White and a cast of golden oldies. Past Air New Zealand safety video hits have included…
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Air 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…
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We are great fans of Marc Newson and what he is achieving at Qantas with regards to design. The lounges in Sydney are spectacular (and won our Top 10 Lounges last year) and his attempts at pulling the fleet into the 21st century have been very successful. (perhaps in part due to the competition arisen…
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Oh dear. Sometimes a Facebook page isn’t such a good idea. Last week Air Canada showcased images of their new cabin on their Facebook page. As we reported back in February, the new 777-300 they have brought to their fleet was been configured in what can only be described as a step above “sardine tin”.…
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Whilst Virgin Atlantic has been seen as a forward thinking leader in the airline field (although now with a wealth of other airlines also in the same field) it seems a nod to a bit of nostalgia is on the cards for their uniforms, which we announced a few months ago, are now designed by…
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Singapore Airlines has been the epitome of luxury for many years now. Many airlines look to the airline, not only for the product they have onboard, but the way that Singapore Airlines effortlessly conveys luxury and sophistication. Singapore Airlines has not failed to deliver on their latest incarnation of products which will replace the current fleets…
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Our friends, Fiji Airways, have announced the latest stage of their rebranding excercise, bringing back the original glamour and authentic of their previous incarnation of the airline. The carrier on Thursday 27th June, relaunched itself worldwide as Fiji Airways, retiring its ‘Air Pacific’ brand. The defining moment, was the reveal of the new uniforms, created by…
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We are pleased to announce our Top 10 economy classes for 2013. We have scoured the world for airlines that have really shown us something truly special. Whilst many airlines didn’t make the list, we’d like to state that generally over the past 12 months, we have seen airlines around the world innovate and renovate…
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Virgin Atlantic announced today they were going to launch a new uniform for the 7,500 staff that wear the Virgin brand, designed by British designer Dame Vivienne Westwood. The collaboration between the two British brands is a long-term partnership which will see a total re-design of the uniform across all areas. With original design and sustainability…
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Garuda Indonesia has had a resurgence in the past few years, and as part of their ‘Quantum Leap’ program announced last year, Garuda have re-launched both their first class product (whilst other carriers continue to remove their products) and ‘executive’ business class. Now available to purchase on their new 777 fleet, the product is of…
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“…and the killer is… [blank screen]” annoying when that happens isn’t it? Not any more! Virgin Atlantic today announced they have now switched on their inflight entertainment from gate to gate, meaning that a passenger can watch an estimated extra two hours per flight. Whilst other carriers around the world have already got this system…
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British Airways today announced that booking has commenced for flights to Hong Kong and Los Angeles onboard their new flagship, the Airbus A380. Los Angeles will be available to book for flights commencing October 15th, and Hong Kong will commence operations on November 15th, both this year. The routes were widely expected, and fit the…
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As JAL announced today that they were launching the JAL 777 ‘Sky Suite’ interior on their New York route as of May this year, we thought we would take a look at the new product that has already been rolled out on the London route as of January 2013. JAL has always been a solid…
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Working on the Inflight Boutique for KLM for a couple of years, I personally know the hard work and effort that goes into the layout and photography of an inflight catalogue. It seems though, that KLM have lifted the bar on what we have come to expect from the world of duty free. Launched on…
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It seems there has been quite the rumour-mill going on the past week over the apparent shift in Dragonair‘s new image, after leaked images of “Cathay Dragon” appeared overnight on the internet. Whilst the photoshopping on the images make it look more like a concept than reality for now, it seems there may be more…
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Here at DesignAir we’ve been a bit of a secret fan of Delta, as we have mentioned before, they are perhaps the most ‘European’ of all the carriers, with warm and friendly service, combined with a very decent hard product and good onboard menu, we’ve never had a bad flight with them. (Although we’ve heard…
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This 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…
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So Malaysia Airlines has extended it’s outstanding ‘Chef-On-Call‘ service (previously only available to first class and platinum frequent fliers) so that travellers in Business Class can now choose their meal 24 hours before travel on certain international routes, meaning their dining options are increased and freshly prepared for their flight. A passenger can now pick…
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Air Canada has announced an amazing 458 seat configuration 77w coming on the line in July this year, including a new premium economy product, something we announced back in May last year. The airline has really stepped up their offering (thankfully), providing a European style cabin to compete with the slightly inferior north American counterparts. We…
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Short on the heels of other Pacific long haul rival Fiji Airways, a designair favourite, Air Tahiti Nui has revealed that it is refitting it’s A340 long haul fleet starting in April this year with a brand new economy and Poerava business class product. Here at thedesignair, we are super excited, as the long trip from…
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