The Seats, Styles, and Surprises Ahead

In the first of a special three-part series, John Walton examines the cabin trends that will define the airline industry between now and 2030.

Business class is where most airlines make their money, and 15 years ago, designer Ben Orson was at the forefront of the Cathay Pacific Cirrus II. It’s a seat that defined the category for 20 years. 

Now helming his own outfit, Orson Associates, he explains to Skift that we’re now in a period of evolution, rather than revolution: “The fundamental architectures of aircraft cabins have largely stabilized. The so-called Tetris Wars over competing configurations are a thing of the past. Increasingly, therefore, a next-generation business class cabin from a leading airline is a refinement of its predecessor, not a radical departure.”

The overwhelming majority of the longhaul-focussed business seats being offered today — which means the seats that will be contracted for, customised, certified, and installed to roughly 2035 — are either in staggered or ‘herringbone’ layouts, or some sort of hybrid, almost all with the option of a privacy door. 

However, the jury is still out on the questions of how high the suites and their doors need to be to achieve the privacy travelers want.

“This will be an ongoing balancing act into the future,” says Thompson Aero Seating’s Ross Burns. “Where is the line drawn when the suite is just right or too tall? Some cultures prefer more height, whereas some regions prefer less, with more open cabins. Designing a flexible suite with capabilities to adapt is advantageous.”

One where the front row is a sort of business-class-plus — or even able to be visibly segregated as an actual ticketed first class — is even better.

But even more advantageous is lightweight engineering. 

The most environmentally sustainable (and, helpfully, cost-effective) move an airline or seat designer can make is to reduce seat weight. For every pound shaved off, multiplied by the number of seats in the cabin, multiplied by the fuel burned during perhaps five to ten years in near-constant use, the exponentially mounting benefits far outweigh those of, say, using more sustainable plastics.

Not Just the Posh Seats

This weight focus is also the key consideration for economy class seats. These are now largely commoditized, with passengers pacified with the bread and circuses of inflight entertainment and better Wi-Fi.

However, hidden carbon (and other environmental impacts) within Scope 3 of emissions regulations is coming to the forefront. With this in mind, significant work around the circularity of the manufacturing process, reduction in waste and carbon-equivalent emissions, and using recycled materials is being undertaken.

TrendWorks is a boutique design house and consultancy that works with big-name airlines such as Virgin Atlantic.

Speaking to Skift, company founder, Elina Kopola, says manufacturers are likely to move towards more sustainable products, with consideration on the full life cycle:  “[Expect] simplified material stack ups, and increase use of mono-materials for many applications in the cabin to resolve the end-of-life complexities and to improve recycling rates.

“Multiple layers of material are bonded together in a stack-up to optimize performance, weight and specification for individual cabin interior parts or seating products,” says Kopola. 

This might be, for example, to increase the strength of a seatback shell, to add flammability resistance, to meet smoke toxicity certification requirements, or simply for aesthetic reasons.

“As materials are bonded together it becomes difficult to separate these at end-of-life. By simplifying this stack-up to a single material type or polymer, the product becomes more efficient to recycle,” Kopola adds.

If environmental consciousness continues to become aspirational, airlines will respond visibly. This could be as simple as accepting the speckled aesthetic in recycled plastics or adding more sustainable woods such as bamboo. 

In part two of this mini-series, it’s so long, farewell, and auf wieder-beige to samey neutrals, as we find out why bold statement accents are on their way to cheer us all up in the cabin.