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British Airways will debut a new first-class suite on its Airbus A380s in collaboration with design firm Tangerine.
While passengers might not choose to fly with a particular airline on the strength of its in-flight entertainment (IFE) offering, those airlines that fail to invest in providing good onboard connectivity and entertainment might find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
In some ways, this is a pivot. Airlines had been moving away from providing personal IFE screens and onboard Wi-Fi as more people relied on down-streaming content to their personal devices for the former and the latter proved expensive and unreliable. But technological advances and new aircraft types are changing the dynamics of customer expectations and product deliverables.
This is particularly the case with narrowbodies, especially new longer-range models such as the Airbus A321LR and XLR, which are capable of sectors of seven hours or more. Many passengers on these longer flights seek entertainment and connectivity options similar to that which they would expect to find on widebodies.
Airlines are therefore increasingly prepared to spend on in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) systems, Panasonic VP product Andrew Masson said. He noted that United Airlines’ NPS score—a measure of customer satisfaction—had increased significantly since it started installing seatback screens on narrowbodies.
He added that there was already some evidence of passengers taking into account any lack of onboard entertainment when making bookings.
In general, Masson said, airlines are starting to work more closely with specialist design houses to create “more integrated, more beautiful design” in cabins in a bid to differentiate their product.
And there are plans to bring more “digital engagement” into the cabin, with seatback screens being touted as a way to bring in ancillary revenue.
“For example, if you’re watching a Bond movie and the system then offers up advertisements for Rolex or Omega watches,” Masson said.
That greater level of digital engagement was illustrated at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, where Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian unveiled several steps to boost connectivity.
For example, Delta Concierge—an AI-powered tool that uses machine learning to personalize travel experiences—will also automatically connect to new Delta Sync seatbacks in future. Delta Sync aims to provide seamless, high-speed Wi-Fi access on board, allowing passengers to stay connected and stream, browse, or work. It also allows travelers to pick up a movie at the point they left it on a previous flight.
RENEWED CONNECTIVITY INTEREST
Getting those services into seatback screens depends on connectivity and the trend today is towards systems that can take signals from multiple satellite constellations, notably Low-Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary (GEO). Intelsat is pursuing this twin-track approach, with an electronically steered antenna (ESA) that can simultaneously connect to both LEO and GEO satellites.
“Around half the traffic on our network today is streaming video. That’s not a latency-sensitive application, so it lends itself to GEO; the other half lends itself to LEO,” Intelsat SVP commercial aviation Dave Bijur said.
The arrival of these multibeam antennas is significant because LEO constellations like Starlink and Kuiper tend to struggle over network hotspots such as major cities like New York or London, where many airline passengers are trying to connect simultaneously.
So, as the airline industry looks to participate in the Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany, in April, how are carriers redesigning their cabins to differentiate their product?
On the Wi-Fi front, airlines are moving towards the twin-track solution, Bijur said: “These [multibeam antenna] installations are ramping up. I would expect to see over the course of 2025 around 500 installations of the new ESA technology.”
By the beginning of 2025, Intelsat had received two RFPs from major airlines citing the need for flexibility when specifying antennas’ LEO and GEO capabilities.
Thales will be following up last year’s introduction of the technology behind FlytEDGE, its Cloud-based IFE system, with the chance for airline executives to experience it in the company’s AIX booth. This year’s show will be less hardware-intensive and more focused on providing a hands-on experience, Thales InFlyte Experience CTO Tudy Bedou said.
Being Cloud-based allows for simpler deployment and upgrading of the system, Bedou said. Whereas traditional IFE systems needed bespoke software and required staff to go onboard aircraft to install or modify them, this is no longer the case. One US airline has been operating four aircraft with the system for a year, and Thales staff have been able to install more than a dozen software updates remotely.
Inside the cabin, seating remains the most fundamental item, and London design studio Tangerine plans to unveil a prototype of its Project Slouch at AIX. While details are still to be revealed, Slouch uses a membrane that moves into the passenger’s lower back region and can be either installed as a line-fit item or retrofitted to economy and premium economy seats.
At the other end of the seating spectrum, Tangerine is working on the final details of British Airways’ new first-class suite. While first-class cabins have disappeared from many airlines over recent years, it is making a comeback with certain carriers, Tangerine creative director Dan Flashman said.
The new suite, including a seat from Collins Aerospace, is scheduled to fly as part of BA’s interior refresh of its Airbus A380s. Lufthansa has also launched a new first-class product, Flashman noted, while Tangerine has been working on a project on the interior of Japan Air Lines’ A350-1000s that include “quite a spacious first class.” Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific has also launched its new premium cabin designs, beginning with its Boeing 777-300ERs that offer the airline’s flagship first-class cabin.
While US carriers have moved away from the concept of a first-class cabin, “in Asia particularly, it’s a growing trend,” Flashman said.
Increasingly, passengers will find themselves on longer-range narrowbodies on routes where they would have expected to find widebodies, and they will bring their widebody expectations to the single-aisle sector. That will likely require the installation of lie-flat seats and even suites with doors.
Sustainability continues to have an increasing influence on cabin layouts, Flashman added, which means looking at lightweight seats and the materials used.
Mirus Aircraft Seating’s Kestrel design, at 6.94 kg per seat, is picking up orders and is in production, head of marketing Carey Briggs said.
The design has been progressively reduced in weight—meaning less fuel and emissions per flight—using new components and new techniques to manufacture them.
Cabin seat design has to tread a fine line, balancing weight, comfort and durability, Recaro Aircraft CEO Mark Hiller said.
“We’re going one step further in sustainability. We’re using used fishing net for literature pockets, and recycled plastics and real wood.” The latter adds to the seat aesthetically, “but most importantly, it’s very lightweight.”
The greater use of recycled materials is a major trend. Recaro has shown several of its new seat range previously, but this year they will be on offer to airlines, together with some new features.
Like most companies, Recaro is still feeling supply chain constraints: “It’s getting better [but] our supply chain team is very busy keeping up with volume, which I would say is still lower than pre-pandemic.”
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