Space and how to use it onboard was one of the key topics up for discussion during yesterday's panel debate on future trends at the Passenger Experience conference in Hamburg.
"We have to recognise increasing passenger needs and demand. We focus on the space and how we can use it," said Airbus head of aircraft interiors marketing Suazana Hrnkova.
"Maybe in the industry we can inspire ourselves from different industries. In public transport we have separate areas for older people, or the disabled or pregnant women. So we had the idea of distributing the seat differently [across the row], maybe adding two more inches for the seat by the window [for example]."
The challenge on how to use space onboard is also an economic one.
"There has always been a tension between the passenger experience and operating profit and how you can reconcile this, because they are at odds with each other," says Teague principal brand strategist, Devin Liddell.
But as Peter Morris, chief economist at Flightglobal consultancy Ascend observes, with modern media, whatever decisions on interiors an airline makes, if it doesn't get it right, there is nowhere to hide. "If you've got it wrong you are going to find out and you are going to have sit on it for a while."
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Source: Flight Daily News
