In the war of the widebodies, Airbus – like Boeing – believes that the passenger experience inside the cabin is just as important as the economics the airliner delivers to the operator. In recent years, Toulouse’s marketing to its airline customers has increasingly put the emphasis on its customers’ customers, focusing on the environment inside its twin-aisle aircraft, and particularly an area where Airbus believes it has the edge over its US competitor: personal space in the economy cabin.
Now it has taken that message a step further with the launch of what it calls its first interiors brand. Airspace by Airbus – which will be introduced on the A330neo when that aircraft enters service around the end of next year – incorporates many of the features first seen on the larger A350. However, although the airframer is making available architecture and technology not included on the A330ceo, Airspace is less a fixed cabin concept and more a design philosophy, suggests Dr Kiran Rao, executive vice president strategy and marketing.
“Airspace is how Airbus will brand its interiors from now on,” he says. “We want passengers to get on and think ‘This is an Airspace cabin’.” Given the efforts airlines put into branding and differentiating their aircraft – whether Airbus, Boeing or otherwise – from their competitors, this is perhaps a bold ambition. However, Rao believes that, for an airline, creating that“buzz and brand” in the main cabin of an airliner is not always easy. “We can all do it in first and business, but you’ve got to do it in economy too,” he says.
He also believes that – thanks to social media – consumers are increasingly differentiating between types of aircraft as well as airlines themselves. After a decade or more during which carriers have increasingly been concentrating on efficiency and getting as many passengers as possible on their expensive assets, travellers have increasingly begun to identify – and tell eachother – which types are most comfortable, particularly in economy, says Rao. “There has been great passenger feeback on the A350,” he adds.
The Airspace A330neo will come with a series of “signature design elements consistently recognisable throughout all Airspace cabins”, including enhanced LED ambient lighting. It will also have overhead storage bins 66% larger than on the current A330. In addition, airlines will have the option of moving mid-cabin lavatories to a combined lavatory and galley area at the rear, similar to the Space-Flex concept for the A320, launched in 2015. It is also offering “touchless” lavatories, cutting down on the potential for users to transfer germs.
The airframer chose the top floor of the City of London’s distinctive Gherkin building – a glass dome open to the sky with commanding views over the capital – as the highly symbolic location to launch the Airspace brand to the press on 23 March. In an era of ever-longer flights, space – and the perception of space – continues to be where Airbus believes it holds a trump card, thanks to the A380 – the world’s largest airliner – and particularly the A350, with its 12cm wider cabin than the Boeing 787.
For some years, Airbus’s marketing has been stressing the extra elbow room its aircraft offer – from the A320 to the A380 – thanks to its standard 18in (45.7cm) economy seat, compared to what it says is an “industry norm” 17in product – alluded to in its advertising by an image of three strangers compromising uncomfortably on personal space at a restaurant table. The wider A350 cabin means passengers in its “standard” nine-abreast economy configuration have more lateral room than those in the same configuration on a 787, says Rao.
“I don’t want to name airlines but we’ve been out there and we’ve flown them and the 787 nine abreast lacks comfort,” he says. One reason for his reticence might be that A350-900 launch customer Qatar Airways also flies 787s, both at nine abreast in economy. With other elements of the carrier’s brand consistent, the difference in seat width between the two types has been highlighted by commentators on social media and journalists, with Qatar Airways chief executive Akbar Al Baker forced to publically defend the Dreamliner’s comfort levels.
Airbus launched the Rolls-Royce Trent 7000-powered successor to its best-selling A330 at the 2014 Farnborough air show to plug what was emerging as a gap at the lower end of its widebody offering. With 186 orders for the -800neo and -900neo to the end of February, the airframer has been able to take some shine off the Dreamliner’s success in the 250-300-seat market. Airbus believes that the Airspace interior in the eight abreast A330neo cabin will now give it an additional weapon in that competitive battle.
Rao says the airframer’s aim is to have “a constant experience for passengers across the Airbus family” so that “A350 customers can comfortably put an A330neo into service beside an A350 and passengers will get exactly the same experience.”
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Source: Flight International
