Etihad Airlines, under Chief Commercial Officer Arik De, embraces its underdog status while focusing on innovation in premium travel. Launching the world’s first International First Class Suite on a narrowbody A321LR, the airline aims to refine its offerings. With significant investments, Etihad is poised to redefine luxury in air travel, enhancing passenger experience across various classes.
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Sensory design within aviation is becoming more commonplace. Brands are no longer just a visual manifestation of a company, as companies across the world embrace all of the senses to create lasting memories. Whether its fragrance, touch or sound, lasting memories are built when all of the senses fire in unison, with sound and scent…
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Acumen, the London based design studio, has been working with JetBlue for several years, reimagining the passenger experience. Back in 2016 they commenced work on the new A321neo cabin, but they have also worked on the new A321LR project which graced the news this week, thanks to its innovative business class cabin featuring the new…
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Many people in the industry will have heard of Anthony Harcup. Having led some of the industry’s most significant aircraft interior developments for the likes of Etihad, Delta, and JetBlue, Harcup recently joined Teague to help develop the team’s growing list of airline customers. Tasked with further developing the team and enriching industry relationships, he’s…
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We took some time out of Singapore Airlines VP of Product Innovation’s day to explore what the A350-900ULR and their new business class means for an airline that continues to innovate. Yung Han Ng explains how the airline puts the passenger experience first, and instead of looking to competitors, looks to their own product, and…
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Our recent experience with Turkish Airlines shows it has the fundamental ingredients for a leading passenger experience, however with just a few small tweaks, the airline could have the perfect recipe. Sat in their existing ‘Lounge Istanbul‘ we conduct an exclusive interview with Arif Ali Gezmisoglu, Turkish Airlines’ Customer Experience Manager, finding out that the…
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Air France has – for many years – been a bastion of design detail. From uniforms, the ever changing menu card designs, amenity kits, safety videos and now new CDG lounges featuring digital art installations, every design choice is carefully considered, which allows the carrier to exude a very French design aesthetic to the passenger…
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Singapore Airlines has just relaunched its SilverKris magazine. The new magazine is just one of a multitude of improvements currently happening at the airline, all tasked with making the passenger experience better. Published by Ink, the world’s leading travel media company, the magazine has undergone a massive revamp, completely redesigning the magazine from the ground…
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SriLankan Airlines might be not on everyone’s radar, but there is good reason why it should. It could even be the one secret airline that you might of heard of that you really should try. With incredibly competitive prices, connections as quick as 45 minutes and a world-class inflight product, this oneworld carrier is certainly…
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Have you ever wondered what involvement the airline alliance has in the design language adopted by their airlines? With the rise the alliance-friendly terminal, such as Heathrow’s Terminal 2, we talk to Julie Murphy, Star Alliance’s Chair in the UK about design and customer experience. Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, can…
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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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Part two of TheDesignAir’s exclusive series on the making of Cathay Dragon. Read Part One here. Cathay Pacific and newly branded Cathay Dragon’s synergies may seem completely obvious to passengers who have flown on both airlines. However to entice new customers to experience the two airlines, so similar and yet distinctly different brought a host of…
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Part one of TheDesignAir’s exclusive series on the making of Cathay Dragon. The newly renamed Cathay Dragon has just started its life as an airline brand. Originally named ‘Dragonair’, the Cathay sibling has very clearly positioned itself alongside the internationally recognised Cathay Pacific. On first glance, the rebrand may just look like a red Cathay…
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We’re sat in the busy ‘Bridge’ lounge in Hong Kong airport, surrounded by the hustle & bustle of the café area and the sound of Illy espressos being perfectly ground and poured by barista staff. The Bridge is one of six lounges in Hong Kong International Airport, and is one of the latest in the…
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London based JPA Design has had a long working history with Singapore Airlines, starting back in 1998 when they first launched the 747 first class suite. Since then the creative studio has tackled a variety of cabin designs for one of the world’s leading airlines, including the 777 and first ever production business class seat for SIA’s A380.…
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Originally by Dominique Afacan, one of our DesignAir judges for forbes.com. She talks business, beds and Boeing with Roberto Abbondio, Head of Sales and Marketing UK/IR for Cathay Pacific. Cathay just won Best Business Class in the Airline Ratings.com awards – how does the cabin differ to the previous offering? It is a brand new concept. The thing we are very…
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Over the years, our dining experiences in the air has been a little bit mixed, even as children we probably have memories of eating shapeless mush as much as we have memories of our best dining experiences. Our bets are the best dining memories are recent memories. That’s because technology and science really have helped…
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When we announced the launch of the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class product on the A330 we mentioned how much we loved the new bar designed by VW+BS, and recently they created a cool time-lapse video showing the design process over the period of 3 years. It’s a fascinating video, showing a natural evolution of the…
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As part of our plan to talk to some of the leaders in aviation branding, thedesignair.net take 5 minutes out of Frank Mertens’ busy schedule to talk about the immediate future of the UK’s much admired bmi regional airline. Hi Frank, thanks for taking time to talk to us, firstly what is your background and…
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thedesignair.net interview with Simon Lloyd Marketing Director, Virgin Atlantic I was lucky enough to grab some time between meetings with a very busy Simon Lloyd, Marketing Director for Virgin Atlantic on the VS045 headed to New York. After sipping on some champagne and savouring a brilliant burger in the ever award winning Clubhouse in Terminal…
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