JetBlue Airways has agreed to be the launch customer in 2020 for the Airspace by Airbus cabin interior for the A320 family that features a central lighting strip, larger baggage bins and a new lavatory design.
The new interior will begin installations on JetBlue A320s starting in 2020, when the New York-based carrier is scheduled to have about 70 aircraft left in backlog, Ingo Wuggetzer, vice-president of Cabin Marketing for Airbus, says on 26 September in an announcement ceremony at the Aircraft Interiors Expo.
JetBlue currently has 102 A320 family aircraft in backlog, along with 176 A320s and A321s combined already delivered.
Airbus began collaborating with JetBlue executives on the design of the new cabin months before the Airspace by Airbus concept was unveiled last April at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany, Wuggetzer says.
Airbus plans to make the Airspace by Airbus cabin standard within three to four years of the entry into service with JetBlue in 2020, he adds. Until then, Airbus will deliver aircraft with two types of cabins.
A retrofit option for the Airspace by Airbus concept will become available in 2020 in parallel with the forward-fit version, he adds.
Meanwhile, the larger baggage bins developed for Airspace by Airbus will be introduced a year earlier in 2019. An undisclosed North American customer has ordered that feature, Wuggetzer says. The bins are enlarged to handle 60% more bags, with each bag up to 40% larger than possible today.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
