Collins Aerospace Interiors president Stan Kottke.
For Collins Aerospace’s Interiors division, the Paris Air Show is an opportunity to talk to aircraft manufacturers and airlines about the trends it is seeing in air travel demand and how cabins can be designed and built to meet those demands.
Stan Kottke, president at Collins Aerospace Interiors, spoke with ATW just before the show. Two key messages he will take to the show are the company’s understanding of the importance of offering agility, differentiation and speed in delivering cabin products as well as thinking differently about how to provide dignified onboard accommodation for people with mobility challenges.
“We spend a lot of time looking at who is traveling and why,” Kottke said. “This is not driven by business travel; it seems to be leisure driven and that’s still robust, especially among millennials and Gen Zs. On top of that, boomers are going to Ireland and on cruises, and our data tell us that boomers and Gen Zs are going together. There’s a lot of family travel; that seems to be a really robust trend. So, you want configurations that make air travel part of the journey just as much as the hotel.
"Certain airlines have identified that the majority of business travelers are one person who doesn’t want to be disturbed. But airlines can complement that with features for the Gen Zs, boomers and family travelers with things like privacy dividers or more connected seating.
“In our modular cabin designs we are planning for the lone wolf or the couple or the family; it’s seats and suites.”
Gen Z and millennial values fare different from those of boomers, Kottke said, and that means airlines should think about how to attract them to their revenue and margin-generating loyalty programs.
“Gen Zs and millennials don’t desire to own a house or a fancy car. The value of the flight journey is much more important. And if you look at who is booking travel, it’s now the Gen Zs and millennials of the boomer families who are making the travel decisions and shaping the experiences. It’s about who is buying the ticket and the experience.”
At Le Bourget, Collins will emphasize its understanding of the need to have a set of cabin products that can be customized rapidly so airlines can brand an experience that is truly different.
“The airlines want something that is purely unique, something that is going to provide a differentiated experience that doesn’t look like anyone else’s. At the same time, those differentiated experiences, if you start from scratch each time, will not be able to hit the market fast enough for that airline to be able to seize the moment. So, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at how you build building blocks that accelerate the design process [and] the certification process, so when someone decides to do something, you don’t have to wait for, say, 80% of the design cycle to occur. It also does not box in the airline because what airlines really don’t want is a seat or a lavatory or a lamp that looks like those of its competitors.
“With the evolution of what the passenger is looking for, the speed to market is just as critical as the differentiation. That’s where I really think we have a position in the market that’s different. We’re really investing in agility in product design and we’re investing in being able to manifest differentiated solutions. If you get both of those right, that’s a very important value statement.
“You can’t just simply change the color and the fabric and say, ‘hey, this is a differentiated product.’ Collins is part of RTX and we’re a very structured engineering company. And so, what we’re doing is a lot of investment in sub-system design … We’re getting the design base set up, the certification activity done, and, in many cases, we’re being very thoughtful about how we get the certification bases done. That takes up to six to 18 months out of the design cycle.”
Onboard accessibility is another important part of what Collins is showcasing.
“As we’ve evolved concepts in this space, we’ve done a pivot in the last year to focus on a very important word, which is dignity,” Kottke said.
“When you talk about who’s traveling and why, there are 6 million people with a disability and who could travel but who don’t because they fear it is not a dignified experience. That’s a huge opportunity. We have shown our new onboard wheelchair strategy that can accommodate someone in their wheelchair without that airline needing to take a seat out or lose revenue. It’s a concept where you can take the wheelchair in and fix it into the cabin and they get the same amenities as everyone else—a tray table, a lamp. It’s very dignified.”
Kottke said the company is working with some “large and progressive airlines” on its accessibility solutions.
“If you see this as an airplane seat problem, you come up with a limited solution. We have viewed it as a galley solution and created a galley system that can be collapsed and un-collapsed,” he said.
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