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Take to the Skies

As Covid-19 shakes aviation to its core, the sector turns to new forms and concepts to regain passenger trust and weather financial turbulence.

Words: Kristofer Thomas

Not since 9/11 has there been such a major shift in air travel. A cursory glance to the sky is evidence enough; what was once a busy grid of intersecting, criss-crossed contrails is now the occasional silent jet cutting through a blue expanse. Since the turn of the year and the spread of Covid-19, our airtime has been severely limited. Attempting to flatten the proverbial curve, all but essential travel is discouraged or outright illegal in many cases. Where air travel is permitted, a health security paranoia and genuine exposure risk has seen passengers reconsider. Throw in a slew of viral anti-mask freak-out footage, privacy concerns tethered to state tracking programmes and widespread uncertainty regarding bookings and refunds, and a seven-hour drive alone becomes considerably more attractive. All of a sudden, after decades of connecting the world, it might just be the aviation industry’s day of reckoning.

2020 has seen Dubai-based Emirates grounding its entire 200-strong fleet, with the Middle Eastern airspace clocking fewer than 50 planes in the sky at any one time. In the US, over 600 Delta jets have been grounded since April as the number of passengers screened by the TSA fell below 100,000 for the first time; a veritable nosedive from the two-million-plus tallied just a year previous.

After 9/11, it took only three days for North American airspace to reopen and flights to resume. Covid-19 on the other – and the range of containment measures put in place to quell its spread – have lasted longer, occurred on a wider scale and unfolded with a great deal more uncertainty. Throughout this year, the International Air Transport Association is predicting a 50% revenue decrease from 2019, marking potential losses of US$314bn.

There have been claims that this crisis will mean the end of air travel. Though this seems unlikely, a shift away from the norm is already

Factory Design’s retrofittable screen (top) and PriestmanGoode’s Pure Skies concept (bottom) show what the future of air travel might look like

in motion. A surge of staycations has seen the passenger plane cut entirely from the holiday experience, whilst substantial job losses and economic damage will see less money available for adventurous long-haul travel even after a vaccine is synthesised.

As the predominant method of global connectivity, aviation will never be in danger of becoming entirely redundant, but it will nonetheless require some adaptation to weather this significant patch of turbulence. Long term, this could mean wholesale transformation of industry processes, but in the short term, it is more likely to fall to designers. The situation may be fluid, but the brief is simple: passengers need to feel safe again.

“Fundamentally it’s a question of communication,” explains Nigel Goode, co-founder of transport design specialist PriestmanGoode. “Airlines have many measures in place, from standard health and safety requirements to increased hygiene that make flying safe; it’s about finding a way to relay that information to passengers.”

Published at the onset of the pandemic, the London-based studio’s Pure Skies concept communicates to passengers what the future of air travel might look like via a series of cabin design and technology interventions. Created around pillars of personal space, hygiene and a touch-free journey, the system pairs structural alterations including staggered seating plans and the installation of divider screens, with more subtle aspects like the seat recline mechanism being contained within the fabric skin. The use of antimicrobial fabrics, along with the replacement of pockets, trays and shared components meanwhile, seeks to eliminate dirt traps and cross-contamination. Colour too plays an important role: “Cyan is perfect to communicate the cleaning, protection, hospital-like environment that then would transform into a positive, relaxing experience provided by warm, peach tones,” Goode notes.

With one of the pandemic’s first casualties being proximity however, the prospect of distanced seats, or in extreme cases the

“Pure Skies offers a cabin where you can combine no-frills seats at low prices while offering options for seats with more personal space, which can also generate revenue for the airline.” NIGEL GOODE – PRIESTMANGOODE

removal of every other seat, has been the cause of commercial anxiety for a business model that has traditionally relied on volume. “It’s important to remember that the move towards more seats – and therefore less space – has been driven by consumer demand for lower prices,” Goode notes. “Going forward, I think we’ll see a clearer distinction between passengers who are driven by cheap ticket prices, and those who require more space, privacy or services. Pure Skies was designed with that in mind, and offers a cabin where you can combine no-frills seats at low prices while offering options for seats with more personal space, which can also generate revenue for the airline.”

Conversely, this could also mean the end of the longstanding class system that has dominated aircraft seating plans. Pure Skies instead proposes a series of rooms and zones, with increased focus on privacy and individual separation in line with the growing desires for personal space. However, whilst this system could be phased out within the passenger service, it has solidified its presence elsewhere. No matter how luxurious and separated their seat may be, those with the means have been turning away from the passenger plane in favour of private, more experiential services. What was once an indulgence has come to be perceived as inherently safer as sharing space with strangers became a point of anxiety.

Four Seasons was an early, pre-Covid player in this field with the launch of its own branded jet in 2015, and recently announced plans for a new custom-outfitted Airbus A321neo. Currently in service is a bespoke Boeing 757, designed by London studio Factory Design to fuse Four Seasons’ core service values with the touchstones of luxury aviation, creating a hotel in the sky. “The idea was to seamlessly join up Four Seasons hotel experiences around the world, like an ocean liner in the sky, travelling from one exceptional destination to the next,” explains Peter Tennent, one of the studio’s directors. “For the interior, whilst the colour, lighting and finishes provide the best clue to the brand, the most interesting thing for us was, in a world of increasingly higher and more private suites on commercial aircraft, we were actually designing a space more akin to a private members club, with an open, relaxed and warmly confident interior, using much lighter colours than would pass the biro test on a regular aircraft.”

This exclusive mode of transport might not dominate the future of air travel, but nonetheless is an indicator of where experiential alternatives could find space in the market. For the passenger model meanwhile, Factory Design has proposed retrofittable screen and division components that could be added and subtracted as needed, though with a potential vaccine now on the horizon, wholesale permanent change may not be so pressing.

“We have steered clear of proposing an allnew cabin design in light of Covid as we believe

“There are a lot of improvements that can be made in all aspects of the on-board product; we need to take advantage of what we’ve learnt over the past six months.” PETER TENNENT – FACTORY DESIGN

that a pandemic is not a reason to go back to the drawing board and start again,” Tennent notes. “However, there are a lot of improvements that can be made in all aspects of the on-board product; we need to take advantage of what we’ve learnt over the past six months.”

If privacy and personal space continue to drive bookings however, we might well see the accelerated adoption of concepts that have until now been the follies of science fiction. Even before the pandemic, some of the sector’s major players had been tinkering with the idea of personal aviation vehicles. Airbus debuted its vertical take-off and landing Vahana concept in 2018 with the first test flight of a selfpiloted prototype, whilst Boeing teamed up with Porsche in late 2019 to develop a flying taxi division. So too a selection of traditionally landlocked companies; Hyundai expect the urban air mobility market to be worth US$1.5 trillion within the next 20 years, and is now working with Uber on its Elevate rideshare vision for a fleet of flying taxi vehicles that take to the city skies to alleviate ground-level congestion. The concept was created in part through Uber’s open design process, a NASAinspired approach that jump-starts innovation by publicly releasing vehicle design concepts so any company can use them to innovate their air taxi models and engineering technologies.

“The pandemic is accelerating R&D into all sectors, including personal aviation vehicles, passenger drones and autonomous travel technology,” Goode notes. “Ultimately, I think we need to focus on developing vehicles for shared use. For me, it’s about ensuring that vehicles, no matter what type, are fitfor-purpose, designed around the user and accessible. It’s about ensuring we design vehicles that are efficient to clean and maintain to ensure widespread adoption by large numbers of people. We need to make sure we design vehicles and systems that are good for people and the planet.” For an industry that has taken significant flak for its green credentials, a degree of environmental empathy going forward could prove key to its rehabilitation.

Though there are reasons to be optimistic with vaccines starting to materialise, it will nonetheless take some time to observe the full effects of this pandemic on the aviation industry. Many major changes to the cabin space will take a minimum of three years to gain the certifications required for widespread use, whilst ineffective state responses to the outbreak could see longer than necessary disruptions cause irreparable damage to national industries. Meanwhile, another few months without bailouts could see a number of firms fold entirely.

What is certain, is that the industry is entering a period of significant change in terms of form and function. “The biggest change will be digital,” Goode predicts. “We are working towards a seamless integration of digital and physical services, where passengers are able to control and customise their travel journey through their own devices.”

Tennent meanwhile foresees a shift in visuals: “Covid may well lead to decorative layers being peeled back to a degree and an aesthetic more in keeping with the clinical perfection of aviation engineering, but I think equally as important will be airlines continuing to demonstrate their differences by making the on-board product echo more generally contemporary lifestyle, rather than what’s available from the manufacturers’ catalogue.”