RedCabin hosted its bi-annual Aircraft Cabin Innovation Summit this December in Dublin, and Inflight Reporter Grace Hardy was in attendance to feel the pulse of the airline interiors industry.

Overview

Dublin, home of Guinness, the Book of Kells, and Avolon, an aviation leasing company, set the backdrop for RedCabin’s Aircraft Cabin Innovation Summit this year, with the latter acting as the host for the event and offering a fresh perspective for suppliers and airlines alike when it came to the discussion of cabin interiors.

Avolon made history as the first aircraft lessor to host the event, but according to RedCabin CEO and Founder Monica Wick, having a lessor present represented the missing part of the industry.

“They’re the ones who are buying the aircraft, which will then be leased to all the airlines. I heard from the audience that it was really eye-opening to hear which kind of challenges they face when it comes to working together with suppliers and all the delays, and how this affects the whole industry in the end. It really rounded up our summit because we bring together OEMs, airlines, suppliers, designers, but we were missing the lessor. Now we have the full picture, and it was very important to close that gap.”

Avolon’s speakers raised important challenges affecting lessors today, which heavily circled around supply chain issues, which, unfortunately, is not a surprise to anyone in the industry. Felipe Campos, Chief Operating Officer at Avolon, pointed to the huge losses incurred by suppliers, such as seating manufacturers, not delivering products on time, which in turn impacts the airlines. He also identified certification complexities and no bids as negative trends.

In case you are not familiar with the format of RedCabin events, the concept is built around three days, two of which are conference and workshop based, and then a final day that typically centres around a tour or talk by the host. The aim is to provide a condensed event that promotes the exchange of ideas, plenty of opportunities for conversations, and ultimately a friendly and fun atmosphere. The workshops especially aim to break down barriers between suppliers, designers, OEMs, and airlines, and offer a space to speak freely about the industry as it stands, and what the future could look like.

The Key Discussions

The agenda was packed with a diverse range of conference sessions this year, covering premium seating to women in aviation and design software.

One particularly good session was conducted by Katsunori Maki, Director of Cabin Products at All Nippon Airways (ANA), who presented THE Room FX, the latest business class seat for the 787 Dreamliner. He walked the audience through its innovative features, such as a simplified and lightweight mechanism with fewer moving parts for less maintenance. Interestingly, the 787 seat is 4 inches wider and lighter than the 777 version, despite the 787 cabin being 15 inches narrower.

There was also a panel to discuss the future of Business and First Class, which delved into the changing landscape of passengers and how it directly affects the products and services that airlines are offering, with some airlines opting to remove First Class entirely. This was attributed to lower revenue in comparison to Business Class, especially with additional costs such as cabin crew training for premium services. It was also noted that more passengers are opting for Business Class due to a worsening Economy offering, and that other options, such as Premium Economy, are being viewed more due to social media.

Other conference sessions saw Guillermo Carmona, Vice President of Cabin and Design Integration at MAEVE, invited to showcase MAEVE’s MJ500, a hybrid-electric regional aircraft currently in development, while Jack Kavanagh discussed the AeroFix Project with PriestmanGoode, an end-to-end solution that enables passengers to travel without leaving their assistive device.

Workshops

The workshops took place across both afternoons, which pleasantly brought laughter, discussion, and no shortage of brainstorming to tackle critical industry issues.

One workshop, hosted by Green Cabin Alliance, challenged attendees to think of innovative ways to make individual components of the cabin, such as laminates or seating covers, recyclable and re-usable, with cabin circularity being at the core of the session. The workshop leaders highlighted the difficulties faced in the pursuit of sustainability, such as a lack of data on materials which then impedes the recycling process.

Kavanagh hosted a workshop that asked attendees to identify challenges and potential solutions for assistive device (wheelchair) users in aircraft, and looked into which stakeholders are responsible for accessibility at each step of the travel journey, starting from booking.

Reflecting on the event’s discussions, Wick added: “At RedCabin, we push the topics of sustainability and accessibility. What I can see and what I’m very happy about is when it comes to sustainability, we are not only talking about plastic cups anymore, we’re digging much deeper into this topic when it comes to recycling a seat or the production cycle. Accessibility is still a topic which needs much more attention. We hear here in every second presentation that the demographics are changing, we are getting older and older, so now is the time that we have to think about how to make flying easier for older people with differences.”

Overall, the atmosphere of the workshops was respectful and refreshing, and has hopefully triggered a few ideas that might snowball into real-life changes and innovations in the future.

Trinity Awards

Finally, delegates were invited to attend the Trinity Awards, invented by Wick last year and returning for its second iteration. The name symbolises the trinity of the customers, the suppliers, and RedCabin, as it aims to bring all parties together in the pursuit of passenger satisfaction.

The categories were voted on by a panel of judges including representatives from ANA, Virgin Atlantic, Riyadh Air, Qantas, and Avolon.

“RedCabin has existed for eight years, and every time I see these people who are so motivated and enthusiastic and doing such a great job, I thought this needs to be rewarded, to give them something back,” commented Wick. I’m very proud that from last year to this year, we’ve had a lot more entries coming into our application phase. Our jury is only airlines, as the end customer needs to be in the jury. Hopefully because of that, we may have a new collaboration coming out of the awards because we are awarding concepts. These are not final products, so we want to give birth to new products, give them a push, and hopefully they work with the airlines after the award.”

The winners were as follows:

• Passenger Experience Concept

Winner: Volarex by Sky-Tiles – SkyPaxxx Interior Repairs, in collaboration with DeepBlue Studios

• Cabin Service Concept

Winner: OPERA ESSENTIAL business class seat – STELIA Aerospace

• Sustainability Concept

Winner: Waste Carbon to Aircraft Cabin – Bringing Circularity to Aircraft Textiles – Boeing, Elevate Aircraft Seating, Botany Weaving, and LanzaTech

• Cabin MRO Concept

Winner: Monova PE – Studio ID, in collaboration with Trendworks, Botany Weaving Mill and Sabeti Wain Aerospace

Speaking to me at the awards ceremony, Daniel Clucas, Founder of Studio ID and member of the Green Cabin Alliance, said: “It feels incredible to be recognised amongst such a crowd of amazing innovations and innovators and huge companies. It really means the world to us. We tried to just make a difference in terms of sustainability. We’ve ended up with an incredible product that not only has sustainability benefits, but passenger benefits, durability benefits. This kind of recognition really will just help innovations like this, like we have made, to push forward and to make a change in the industry.”

• Collaboration Excellence

Winner: Aria – JPA Design and Cathay Pacific

• Newcomer/Startup

Winner: 3mesh – Muller Textiles

• Lifetime Achievement

Winner: Sven Achilles.

With more than 30 years in the aircraft cabin industry, Sven Achilles’ unwavering commitment to bettering the cabin experience for passengers has benefited and progressed a huge number of products, concepts and teams across the industry.

Upon receiving his award, Achilles said: “When I started, I was light and the seats were heavy. Now, I am heavy and the seats are light. I don’t know what to say, thank you for your words.”

Final Thoughts

To cut three days of discussions short, this was not an event to be missed. I have personally come away from the summit with a notebook full of feature ideas, and many people that I would like to continue conversations with in-person, and on the page. As official media partners, Inflight would like to thank the delegates, attendees, sponsors, Avolon, and RedCabin.

Photos: Inflight