Looking at the Winners of the Crystal Cabin Award
More Pleasure, More Business
In this divided trip report
Part Two Onto Business
- Part One – The Pleasure
- Part Two – The Business
- British Airways Galleries South Lounge
- BA962 London Heathrow to Hamburg – Club Europe
- IBIS Budget St Pauli
- Crystal Cabin Awards Roundup
- Aircraft Interiors Expo – What you might have missed
- Back to Hamburg Airport, Hamburg Airport Lounge
- BA967 Hamburg Airport to London Heathrow – Club Europe
- Not going home in a hurry
- Compensation Fun, Games and Paperwork
- Life is in many parts
One of the highlights of the Passenger Experience Week is the Crystal Cabin Awards hosted by Hamburg Aviation as it gives us the chance to see the continuing innovation in the industry.
FlightChic kindly invited me as her guest to the awards this year to witness the awards ceremony – as well as the meal. This year the awards moved to Hamburg Chamber of commerce – and I find it an excellent time to sit down with people, chat and catch up with them “outside of the office”, whilst debating the merits of the winners.
Maryann of APEX opening the show.
A new feature for this year’s award was a panel discussion about passenger experience, with Sir Tim Clark of Emirates, Juha Jarvinen of Virgin Atlantic and Toni Garrn of Jetlite, examining some of the issues and topics – worth the long watch if you have the time.
With that… onto the winners of this year’s Crystal Cabin Awards… and my thoughts about them
Cabin Concepts – Airbus S.A.S. (cooperation partner Safran): Lower Deck Pax Experience Module – I’ve covered this in depth on this blog.
See my most recent post here.
Cabin Systems – Collins Aerospace: M-Flex Duet – An interesting concept that allows the space of an entryway to be used as a business class bar when in flight.
Image, Collins Aerospace
Greener Cabin, Health, Safety & Environment – Air New Zealand: Air New Zealand Skycouch Infant and Child Improvements – Another welcome win for Air New Zealand who pioneered the SkyCouch concept, and has improved it with improvements for infants, a harness and a pod for babies.
Image, Air New Zealand.
IFEC- United Airlines (cooperation partner Panasonic Avionics): Entertainment for all. Accessibility continues to be a key theme in this award, with Bluebox blazing that path last year, and United Airlines/Panasonic Avionics increasing the accessibility of the IFE system by introducing features that all passengers on any ability to access content on their system (and is currently flying on the Boeing 787-10 fleet).
Image, United Airlines
Material & Components – Collins Aerospace: µLED Reading Light – This light got a win with being light in weight, and having a 75,000 hour+ lifespan, with the light being as powerful as three existing lighting elements. Easy integration into the cabin, yet those weight savings can add up in the long term.
µLED Reading Light – Image, Collins Aerospace
Passenger Comfort Hardware RECARO Aircraft Seating: Sleeping comfort above the clouds – A worthy win for a good seat with passenger friendly improvements.
You can read about my extended coverage of the CL3710 and its improvements here.
University – Hongik University (cooperation partner ADIENT): Adient 1FA – Fancy a Duplex in the sky? The design interweaves the various seat classes to achieve the maximum possible use of space. Premium and Economy passengers may find themselves next to one another or even above or below one another.
Visionary Concepts – Paperclip Design Limited: Peacock Suites introducing the idea of creating more space for airlines to vary their First Class products, with flexible partitions and seating arrangements allowing for individual products to be put together on a flight-by-flight basis as required, ranging from family compartments to three-room luxury suites.
Image, Paperclip Design
The night is a good one – but when you’ve got jetlag and general tiredness – a gin bar isn’t the best idea in the world.
More important is finding the exit and a U-Bahn back to the hotel. Along with some late night photography. Because – heck, let me be slightly creative on a night out.
Eventually, I found the U-Bahn station and headed back to the hotel
To the U-Bahn!
And even better – U-Bahn trains with USB outlets.
Economy Class and Beyond would like to thank FlightChic for the invitation to the Crystal Cabin Awards and to enjoy the awards ceremony with her and other guests.
Next: Aircraft Interiors Expo Round-up
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