October 25 2024  |  Seating

Seating report: Business in the front

By Robynne Trueman

This is a special feature from PAX Tech's October 2024 APEX Global EXPO issue


AliceBluAero’s Business Class Quantum WB

As airlines look for new ways to bring premium offerings to passengers, the Business Class market offers many opportunities. PAX Tech connected with seating experts to learn more on this, in conversation with Unum Aircraft Seating, AliceBluAero
and RECARO Aircraft Seating.

Supply chain resilience


(Left to right) Alan McInnes, VP Business Development, Unum Aircraft Seating; Markus Höllerer, Head of Strategy and Products, RECARO Aircraft Seating; Ryan McNeice, CEO, AliceBluAero

“Current gaps in the business class market have been caused by supply chain and capacity challenges,” says Alan McInnes, VP Business Development, Unum Aircraft Seating. “These have led to longer lead times and increased costs for business class seating, hindering airlines’ ability to refresh their cabins with the latest seating innovations.”

Ryan McNeice, CEO, AliceBluAero, echoes this sentiment citing the most evident gap as a lack of capacity among current seat manufacturers to meet airline needs. He says this is especially true when airlines seek more bespoke, tailored offerings with shorter lead times.

But seating suppliers are working to address these gaps in the market by developing resilient local supply chain networks and close partnerships.

“This network is designed to be agile, allowing us to respond swiftly and maintain a steady flow of materials and components—allowing us to deliver on time,” McInnes says. “By focusing on simplifying our designs, we also reduce the dependency on complex parts, which further mitigates supply chain risks.”

Similarly, McNeice explains that AliceBluAero engineers seat designs with supply chain efficiency as a central focus.

“By choosing readily available raw materials and leveraging our in-house precision engineering capabilities at Blue Eagle Precision, located just one and a half meters from our assembly line, we’ve established an unprecedented level of control over our supply chain,” he tells PAX Tech. “As a forward vertically integrated company, we have evolved beyond traditional supply chain challenges, ensuring that we can always scale the supply of aerospace components from within.”

Down with doors


RECARO’s R7 Business Class seat

Markus Höllerer, Head of Strategy and Products, RECARO Aircraft Seating, points out that Business Class is a chance for airlines to increase the “premiumness” of the inflight experience.

A key element in enhancing the passenger experience is meeting expectations for privacy throughout the journey. As a result, the debate about whether or not to include doors in Business Class seats is intensifying, but as Höllerer explains, it is a subjective decision for suppliers.

“It really depends on an airline’s regional background, its business model, market positioning and the vision for the Business Class cabin,” he says. “In general, having a door requires real estate and you either take it away from the aisle width or from the passenger living space.”

In addition to affecting aisle or living space real estate, Unum’s McInnes points out that it is a question of privacy versus weight and design complexity.

“For airlines, this translates into higher costs for product acquisition and ongoing operational costs,” he explains, adding that doors must comply with a range of safety regulations to ensure they do not impede passenger evacuation during an emergency, creating additional complexity to cabin certification.

“At Unum, we believe in a balanced approach and that doors should be included only if they genuinely add value to the passenger experience,” McInnes says.

AliceBluAero is addressing the varying preferences on Business Class doors by developing variants of its seat.

“From a manufacturer’s perspective, and considering fuel efficiency, moving away from doors would be ideal,” McNeice admits. “However, customer demand continues to prioritize privacy. With this in mind, while our herringbone design offers inherent privacy, we’ve developed variants of our seats that incorporate versatile and reliable door systems to meet market demand without compromising operational efficiency.”

Sustainability standpoints


Unum Aircraft Seating’s Business Class seat

The debate of doors versus no doors stems from a greater goal of creating lightweight seats to help airlines cut down on fuel burn, operating costs and carbon footprint. According to McInnes, weight is the single biggest contribution that seating can make to aircraft sustainability. But he says that while weight is extremely important in Business Class seating, it cannot be the only consideration. The seat must also be comfortable, certifiable and offer the luxury and refinement expected by the airline.

“Sustainability is always one of the key decision criteria for airlines in their selection process,” RECARO’s Höllerer says. “Improving weight from one generation to the other is always the goal.”

However, he says that suppliers cannot rely on weight benefits alone for sustainability in seating, pointing to RECARO’s R Sphere technology platform as an example. The seat is crafted from sustainable materials which are being rolled out into various seating platforms.

For AliceBluAero, sustainability and weight reduction are core considerations. The supplier’s seats are designed to avoid composites, making 100 percent of the seat structure recyclable.

A patent-pending seat mechanism from the company is also set to offer operators typical weight saving of 15 to 20 kilograms per passenger.

“The focus on sustainability and lightweight design is not just a trend but an evolving necessity in today’s market, and we’re committed to being at the forefront of that evolution,” says McNeice.

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