Decision-makers in the airline industry need to “start earlier” and have the willpower to carry their ideas through the long and challenging regulatory process, a design company specialist has told the Passenger Experience Conference in Hamburg.
They also need to hire “geniuses and visionaries” who can put the excitement and wonder back into flying, Richard Seymour, founder of design company Seymourpowell, told delegates.
Recalling the time he flew to New York on a BAC-Aerospatiale Concorde, Seymour said that, even though it was 20 years ago, he still remembers “every detail” of the flight.
“Two weeks ago I flew back from Australia and I don’t remember anything about it”, he adds.
Seymour believes that most of the negatives associated with air travel can be turned into positives with a little creative thinking.
“If you’re fascinated and excited about something it will detract away from the fact that you’re uncomfortable," he says. "If you make things fun, people want to do them.”
One example of how the industry could divert passenger attention away from their discomfort would be to use digital imaging to display what is happening on the ground beneath them.
Seymour says such sights are sorely lacking from moving maps used on aircraft, adding: “When I look out of the window, what do I see? Wonders.”
Source: Flight Daily News
