Air New Zealand’s Skynest sleeping pod has won top award in a prestigious aircraft interiors contest.
The six-berth rest area for Economy and Premium Economy has won a Crystal Cabin Award - well over a year before it will be available on planes.
The airline took the top award in the cabin concepts category and showed an ‘‘outstanding level’' of innovation that offers a new level of passenger experience.
‘‘With its winning entry, Skynest, Air New Zealand provides a never-before-seen option for economy passengers: lie-in bunks for up to four hours of rest and relaxation for the airline’s longest flights,’' said judges at the function in Hamburg, Germany this morning.
Passengers will be charged between $400 and $600 for a four-hour spell in the bunk-style area that will be fitted in aircraft flying to New York and Chicago, flights of up to 17 hours.
Each pod includes a full-size pillow, sheets and blanket, ear plugs, a separate reading light, personal device USB outlet, ventilation outlet and lighting designed for rest.
The award comes after years of development by Air New Zealand and a false start in early 2020 when the pandemic hit and delayed its deployment. The pods will be fitted in new Boeing 787s coming into the fleet from late next year and will be retrofitted to 14 Dreamliners already in its fleet. The airline last month said Skynest was in its final stages of certification by international regulators which will need a final sign off by New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority. New cabins with improved Business Premier seats are being installed.
The research and design process for Skynest spanned five years and 170,000 hours, and the airline says it `has resulted in a product that we’re confident will revolutionise the in-flight experience’' initially for the US routes.
Air New Zealand head of aircraft programmes Kerry Reeves was in Hamburg to accept the award on behalf of the airline.
“It’s an incredibly proud moment for us to receive this award. Air New Zealanders come to work everyday and challenge each other to think differently and the Skynest is a perfect example of this mindset in action,’' he said.
“The development of the Skynest has been a labour of love. As it’s a world-first there are plenty of hoops we need to jump through and problems we need to solve, but the popularity and excitement around it coming to market is what keeps us going.
Air New Zealand also picked up the Onboard Hospitality Cabin Concept of the Year Award for its innovative FACE programme (Future Aircraft Cabin Experience). The award looks at the very best in cabin-wide innovation from airlines around the globe, with the airline taking out the award for redefining the future of its onboard customer experience with a focus on the future and its ‘Manaaki – taking care further’ brand promise.
The airline won the Greener Cabin, Health, Safety and Environment category in 2019 for the Economy Skycouch.
When Skynest is introduced from September next year, each passenger will be limited to one session, with families travelling on the same ticket able to book a session for each passenger, pending availability.
Located between Premium Economy and Economy, each bed will come with a separate seatbelt.
The bedding will be changed between each session, and a 30-minute transition time will be allowed for this. The lights will gently come on at the end of each session, and crew will “politely” wake any passengers who sleep through this.
Pricing will shift depending on demand and it may be possible to buy a spell in Skynest while on a flight.
The airline also says the pods will be designed and installed in New Zealand.
A jury of 28 industry experts selected seven innovative products from a highly varied field of nearly 80 entries.
“This year’s submissions included many outstanding innovations that set new standards for the passenger experience,” said Lukas Kaestner, president of the Crystal Cabin Awards Association.
“It’s especially exciting that some of these stunning products will be flying very soon, while others offer a more tentative vision of air travel in the future.’'
Cabin Systems, Materials and Components: Thales Avionics’ winning entry, Onboard Data Center (ODC) introduces an IT architecture to commercial passenger aircraft that uses a system of “blades” sharing storage and computing. The jury was particularly impressed by the prospect of using web-based technologies in the air that are already in widespread use on the ground, as they offer up to ten times the capacity of existing IFE (In-flight entertainment) servers. The modularity of ODC also helped Thales Avionics clinch the title; the ability to swap out blades in the future and so make the system upgradeable was seen as a potentially valuable asset.
Health and Safety: With its cabin air quality monitoring system ACES, Teledyne Systems has secured the 2023 award for a product that allows operators to monitor air quality in the cabin more effectively than ever before, with benefits for passenger safety and wellbeing. ACES monitors several parameters in real-time and relays the data directly to ground stations. The system uses laboratory-standard sensors to check airborne particulates as well as gasses such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and ozone as well as volatile organic compounds.
Passenger Comfort: Collins Aerospace’s Intelisence capitalises on developments in artificial intelligence to leverage data gleaned from cameras and sensors to predict passengers’ ideal travel experience. A key aspect that motivated the jury to single out Intelisence was the multi-faceted potential benefits of the system. Anticipating the needs of the customer before they reach for the call button could let airlines provide a more seamless service. Yet the data generated could also allow operators to plan resources more effectively, reducing waste and increasing efficiency. At the same time, data about passenger needs is collated and presented to cabin crew in a way that reduces workload, bringing potential benefits for crew as well as passengers.
IFEC and Digital Services: The LEO Connectivity Solution by AirFi and its cooperation partner Iridium proved a compelling proposition for the jury of industry experts. Invisible to the passenger, the LEO Connectivity Solution connects to the Iridium Certus system using a pen-sized antenna housed in the window frame that costs substantially less than typical broadband antenna solutions. The system offers added connectivity for both passengers and crew; travellers can chat with family, friends and co-workers on WhatsApp and iMessage, while the crew can use the system to access ACARS transmissions or validate credit card payments.
Sustainable Cabin: Deep Dyed Carpet by Lantal Textiles. The winning entry shows potential to improve the ecological footprint of aircraft cabins in multiple ways, saving not only 60 per cent of water and 80 per cent of waste during production but also aircraft weight and thus CO2 emissions. At the same time, this ultra-lightweight carpet is visually customisable to the customer’s needs. To achieve this, Lantal Textiles devised a new digital deep dyeing technology for carpets, an advance rewarded by the jury with the Crystal Cabin Award 2023.
University: Technical University of Delft (in the Netherlands) has seats that are 3D-printed using sustainable fibres. The lightweight seat cushion reduces the amount of material needed while supporting the passenger’s body in an optimal way and at the same time reducing the weight of each seat and the aircraft overall.
The airline sold its last slots at Heathrow in 2020.