It seems seating manufacturers are adjusting to a life beyond COVID-19, with seats to match. Safran Seating (part of Safran Group) introducing new products to help adapt to the future of travel
Safran and Universal Movements – Interspace Portfolio.
Safran has partnered with Universal Movement, they will be offering the Interspace equipment which improves premium economy passengers comfort when travelling by utilizing two easily-deployable padded wings that fold out from the seatback.
Safran Premium Economy Seats with Interspace equipment – Image, Safran Seating/Universal Movement
The padded wings allow passengers to rotate and lean on a cushioned surface and thereby provides greater lateral support. For airlines with seating investments, the system is retrofit-able, which allows airlines to fit the Interspace technology onto a fleet without replacing existing seat units.
For airlines that want to block the middle seat out, Safran Seats and Universal Movement are also working on an equipment adaptation called Interspace Lite, which gives airlines the flexibility to easily reconfigure their economy cabins, by locking out either the central or outboard seats of a row.
Interspace Lite – Image, Safran Seating/Universal Movement
Travel Safe by Safran Seats
Safran Seating has developed a new seating range in addition to the Universal Movement options to support airlines, in an option pack called “Travel Safe by Safran Seats”
These are a broad set of solutions that attempt to address
- Social distancing without loss of density
- touchless interactions with the seat
- virus-free surfaces.
Travel Safe by Safran Seating
So, what does this offer?
Travel Safe offers equipment such as a Ringfence, a simple & efficient removable partition that isolates neighbouring passengers.
It also offers touchless interaction equipment require no hand-touch, such as door actuation or pedal actuation of backrest recline.
In terms of virus-free surfaces, it can incorporate a wide set of seats and tray table coating range which facilitates disinfection and cleaning.
Availability
For those airlines looking to adapt and consider these upgrade, they will be available from Summer 2020 onwards, and can potentially be used on any sort of seat (in the case of the Interspace product), and with proposed new products from the manufacturer
In Quotes
On the launch of Safran seats with Interspace seating options Quentin Munier, Safran Seats EVP Strategy Innovation said
“Safran Seats is confident that this partnership with Universal Movement will generate value to our customers thanks to its recognized agility and innovative spirit. Interspace is a great innovation for privacy of passengers, even more so in the post-Covid-19 travel environment that’s ahead of us“.
Travel is going to be different – how airlines adapt will be what to watch
We all know travel is going to be different as COVID-19 changes. Whilst IATA doesn’t like social distancing aboard aircraft (nor airlines for the lost revenue), there are some innovations here that can offer some modicum of protection (or the illusion of it in some cases).
Solutions like Safran offerings give a glimpse into how airlines can still achieve density, yet provide some protection for their customers.
It will be interesting to see which ones take advantage of these offerings.
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‘Social distancing without loss of density’ is an oxymoron
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