Airbus, Europe's largest aircraft manufacturer, has started a collaboration with Zodiac Aerospace, a Safran company that deals with aircraft furniture, to develop sleeping modules to be placed in the holds of aircraft. The project was unveiled on April 10 at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany. Little is known about it yet, but the idea would be to offer passengers who have to make very long journeys the possibility of sleeping more comfortably than that allowed by first-class reclining seats. In the images released by Safran and Airbus, the modules are white and bright, the beds are bunk and there are no seat belts, but barriers that probably have a similar function.
. @ Airbus and @ ZodiacAerospace enter into a partnership for new lower-deck sleeping facilities? https://t.co/yteDQWiGbM pic.twitter.com/ZViVgB3yFs
– Safran (@SAFRAN) April 10, 2018
Airbus and Zodiac explained that the modules they are thinking about could be placed in the holds of aircraft as an alternative to baggage containers and that the transition from one logistics solution to the other could take place between the routine operations that are carried out between a flight and the other at the airport. Airlines will be able to choose from a catalog of different modules for A330 model aircraft – competitors of the Boeing 767, 777 and 787, used by Delta, Etihad and Turkish Airlines among others – from 2020 and will also be able to order them for older aircraft. Both Airbus and Zodiac already have experience in the field of aircraft beds as in the A330 and A340 aircraft, under the main passenger cabin, there are cabins where the crew can rest, equipped with beds.
Among the airlines that could be interested in sleeping modules to put in the hold could be the Australian Qantas which last month announced that it was planning direct flights between Australia and the United States and between Australia and Europe: they would be at least 17 hours long. . Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said that for these types of flights the planes could be divided into four classes, with part of the hold being used to accommodate beds. Nothing is known about the price of tickets including the sleeping space in the hold: it will depend on the airlines that choose to adopt this solution and it will be up to them to decide whether the beds will be reserved in advance or if they can be requested during the flight.
