Largest jetliner will have options

By Chris Woodyard
USA Today

NEW YORK — The largest commercial jetliner ever to fly should be outfitted with its own in-flight disco.

The Airbus A-380 superjumbo jet is shown in an undated company photo. Singapore Airlines will begin flying the jetliner in four years. Bloomberg News Service

Well, maybe a cocktail lounge with floor-to-ceiling wraparound windows.

So went the discussion as Singapore Airlines invited 20 of its best business and leisure fliers for a weekend of blue-sky thinking on how to outfit the Airbus A-380, a double-decked behemoth set to make its debut in four years.

As the first airline on tap to receive the history-making aircraft, Singapore is hoping that focus groups in New York, London and Singapore will help lead to the design of passenger-friendly interiors. The invited customers caught the spirit during recent sessions at a hotel here.

"They really are starting from scratch, so they can break the rules," said passenger volunteer Juan Acevedo, who works for an asset management firm and flies overseas twice a year.

The stakes are huge. Airbus doesn't want to flop in its bid to dethrone rival Boeing's 747 as the queen of the world's aviation fleet.

So far, it has sold more than 100 A-380s to eight air carriers, including 10 firm orders to Singapore, despite the air travel slump.

All eyes will be on Singapore. From an economic perspective, the airline is betting that the economy will have recovered by the time the plane is ready. From a passenger point of view, Singapore is hoping to add features that will make the A-380 as noteworthy inside as it is for its outside dimensions.

Airbus says the A-380 is designed for 555 passengers. It will be up to Singapore, however, to decide how many seats to install and how much space to leave free for other uses. The airline hopes to find designs that will make the cabin seem less cramped.

"There are ways to use the space in a more efficient way," said Joseph Debacq, Singapore's customer research chief.

That's why passengers are being made an integral part of the process, reversing past practice.

"A lot of the designs of modern aircraft have been led by the engineers and the airlines," said Roy Langmaid, part of the consulting team brought in to run the exercise. "In some ways, the passengers have been an afterthought."

Not this time. To foster breakthrough thinking, the frequent fliers were led through exercises designed to release inhibitions and free creativity.

Ideas flew. Asked to come up with innovative ways to use an unneeded forward cargo hold as passenger space, participants bounced around everything from the disco, yoga classroom and view-lounge concepts to a gym, hot tub or showering area.

The space could be turned into a glassed-in room where giant-screen, wrap-around movies could be shown like at a planetarium, one participant suggested. Or it could be domed to allow in natural sun or moonlight.

Most of one day was spent building full-scale mock-ups of areas where successively larger groups of people could live for up to 18 hours, the length of a long trans-Pacific flight.

About three hours later, the conference room resembled a makeshift desert encampment. But what the exercise may have lacked in craftsmanship, it made up for in a few resounding themes:

• Personal space. Passengers sought to find solutions to present-day planes, which can be crammed with so many seats that fliers feel shoehorned in.

"No matter where you're sitting or what you're paying, you feel like a hostage," stockbroker Marion Lukasik said.

• Sleep. The ability to have a lay-flat bed on a daylong flight overrode just about every other passenger concern.

"People want to sleep, no matter what class they are in. There is a lot of passion around that," Debacq said.

• Peace. One group named their configuration Tranquility Class to underscore the serenity they seek, decorating it with reassuring greens and purples. Like others, they envisioned a place where passengers could tune out the world through music libraries or other interests to pass the time.

• Self-service. Though Singapore is famous for attentive flight attendants, customers said they would the like the option of being able to grab their own snacks or drinks, pick out music or videos and try out other self-service ideas.