Here’s an event that will aim to provide visitors with the entire gamut of innovations in cabin and cockpit interior products: from in-flight entertainment and connectivity to LED lighting, and from lavatories and wash basin taps to textiles.
In this issue, we preview the show with an insiders’ look at those exhibitors’ products that are helping today’s airline cabin designers to turn tomorrow’s aircraft interior dreams into a living reality.
In the same way that we might decorate our own home and give each room a new makeover, aircraft interior designers are also looking to incorporate fresh designs and aesthetics that provide them with the greatest amount of creative design freedom possible.
However, this freedom comes at a price. Today’s aerospace industry is battling with spiralling fuel prices and taxes that are forcing aircraft manufacturers to design the most lightweight and fuel-efficient aircraft possible while at the same time meeting increasingly complex safety, aesthetics, passenger comfort and performance requirements in business, first class seating and other areas of the cabin.
Meanwhile, a gradual shift towards larger and more sophisticated cabin seating and sleeping areas now means many interior features must comply with stringent regulations around flame, smoke and toxicity and heat release standards.
This year, over 500 exhibiting companies will present their latest innovations within the global interiors field, with suppliers skirting the stands, galleys and aisles in the hope of satisfying airline operators’ demands to provide today’s air travellers with the best possible interior cabin inflight comfort, infotainment and experience, which in turn will help them win repeat business.
Mike Richardson, editor