Travel — ✅ خرید وی پی ان ❇ ip ثایت vPn آی پی اختصاصی ◐

سپتامبر 4, 2022

Airlines revamp in-flight menus, from vegan meatballs to ice cream sundaes

Courtesy: Singapore AirlinesThe aromas of airplane food are once again wafting through cabins at 35,000 feet.From vegan meatballs to ice cream sundaes, airlines are offering new options and old favorites to woo returning travelers. As the peak travel season fades and inflation weighs on household and company budgets, it’s even more important than usual for airlines to court passengers.Airplane food, a favorite travel punchline for comedians, is hardly the top reason why travelers choose a carrier — price and schedule are much stronger factors. But it can be a creature comfort on board and can go a long way toward winning over passengers, especially those who are willing to pay up for premium seats, analysts say.”Food is one of the most tangible signals of what an airline thinks of its customers,” said Henry Harteveldt, founder of travel consulting firm Atmosphere Research Group and a former airline executive.The start of the Covid-19 pandemic halted almost all food and beverage service on flights as travel collapsed and airlines limited crews’ contact with passengers to avoid spreading the virus. The pandemic drove airlines to record losses and had them looking to cut costs wherever possible, such as in-flight food.With travel returning, airlines around the world are rolling out new menu options. Alcohol sales, with some new ready-to-drink options, are back on board in U.S. coach cabins. And face masks are now mostly optional, removing an obstacle to onboard food and beverage service.As tastes change and airlines face supply chain challenges, the meal on your seat-back tray table is making a comeback — with some adjustments.Chasing high-paying travelersBetter in-flight menus can boost a carrier’s image and help it bring more high-paying travelers on board. First- and business-class customers are becoming even more of a prize as airlines try to recover from the pandemic’s financial impact.Because of “the incentive to win those premium class passengers, the incentive to spend more money [on food] is high,” said Steve Walsh, partner at management consulting firm Oliver Wyman in its transportation and services practice.Still, food and beverage costs make up just about 3% of a full-service airline’s expenses, he estimated.Courtesy: Singapore Airlines | American AirlinesWhile food is for sale in many domestic coach cabins and is generally complimentary on long-haul international flights, many of the new offerings target those in premium classes, where there are fewer passengers and service is more elaborate.A plethora of videos have been posted online by airline passengers reviewing meals, plating and service in detail. Popular staples such as Biscoff cookies and Stroopwaffel treats garner loyal followings and come to be expected by many travelers. Missteps on the menu or service are amplified on social media by disappointed travelers.One offering: Delta is serving passengers on long-haul international flights a new sundae-in-a-cup premixed with chocolate, cherries and spiced Belgian cookies called speculoos, which are known in North America as Biscoff cookies.”Obviously it is an homage to the Biscoff,” said Mike Henny, Deltas’ managing director of onboard services operations.In more premium cabins, such as Delta One on international flights, passengers can build their own sundaes with a choice of toppings, including Morello cherry compote, chocolate sauce and speculoos cookie crumbles.Ice cream on Delta Air LinesSource: Delta Air LinesDelta in July said the revenue recovery in premium products and its extra-legroom seats was outpacing sales from standard coach — further motivation to introduce new and exciting food items.Last week, the airline said it is teaming up with James Beard Award winner Mashama Bailey, executive chef of Savannah, Georgia-based restaurant The Grey, for “Southern-inspired” meals on flights out of Atlanta for domestic first-class passengers. Travelers on Delta One flying internationally out of the hub can also preorder menu items curated by Bailey.Airlines for years have teamed up with celebrity chefs to design their menus and lately have been working more with local businesses. In February, American Airlines brought Tamara Turner’s Silver Spoon Desserts’ Bundt cakes on board domestic premium cabins.Veggie and veganEven before the pandemic, airlines were expanding options for travelers who prefer vegetarian and vegan meals. Now, those types of alternative dishes are getting an even closer look.”Pasta isn’t always the solution,” said Delta’s Henny.Singapore Airlines, a carrier that operates some of the world’s longest flights, brought in Southern California-based luxury spa Golden Door to develop dozens of recipes for its in-flight menu. Golden Door’s executive chef, Greg Frey Jr., focuses on vegetable-forward dishes that he says are among the best for digestion on flights.”I think people are, rightly so, concerned they’re not going to feel as satiated with this vegetarian meal and [think] ‘I just need this piece of meat.’ And in the end … you really don’t need that much protein when you’re sitting in an airplane and relaxing,” he said. “It’s not like you’re heavy lifting.”An hour later, you’re not going, ‘Ugh, I wish I didn’t have the meatballs.'”Greg Frey Jr.executive chef at Golden DoorFrey developed a Portobello mushroom “meat ball” dish that’s served with a dairy-free risotto made with vegetable broth. The mushroom balls are steamed and served with an heirloom tomato sauce: “There’s not a lick of meat in there,” he said.”It’s so satisfying and you get all those umami flavors,” he said. “The best part is an hour later, you’re not going, ‘Ugh, I wish I didn’t have the meatballs.'”Supply chain puzzleGreens and salads are among the most difficult dishes to serve on board. Airline chefs have to make sure ingredients are hardy enough to endure transportation and refrigeration, making stronger greens such as kale a better option than some more delicate varieties.”We have to be very choosy about what type of greens we offer,” said American Airlines spokeswoman Leah Rubertino. “Arugula, for example, is not our friend.”The airline is offering salads on more flights compared with before the pandemic, Rubertino said.The airline is also now offering a “fiesta grain bowl” with rice, quinoa, black beans, cauliflower, corn and zucchini as a vegetarian option in many first-class cabins for domestic flights.Airlines have been trying to source vegetables more locally, giving their catering companies fresher ingredients and cutting down on transportation time and costs. Singapore Airlines since 2019 has been using greens from AeroFarms, a vertical farm near Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey. Spokesman James Boyd said the airline has plans to source from other vertical farms close to the major airports it serves in the coming years.Vertical farm at Aerofarms in New JerseyLeslie Josephs | CNBCOnce the ingredients are sourced, there’s the challenge of serving meals for thousands of passengers — made only more difficult by broad supply-chain and labor shortages and delicate ingredients.Airlines have struggled to staff in a tight labor market, as have airport catering kitchens and other suppliers.”There’s not a day that goes by where we don’t have issues with provisioning our aircraft with pillows, blankets, plastic cups, food,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom said on a quarterly call in July.Delta’s Henny said the carrier phased food back gradually to ease strains on service.”We knew we couldn’t just flip a switch,” he said. “We had to be very creative at the height of the pandemic.”As food service expands, airlines are encouraging travelers to order their meals ahead of time so the carriers know what to load on the plane, whether it’s a special meal for religious or other dietary restrictions or just their favorite dishes in first class.Meanwhile, some flight attendants still have to make do with what’s on board.Susannah Carr, a flight attendant at a major airline and a member of the Association of Flight Attendants union, told CNBC that if the crew doesn’t have a vegetarian meal on board for a premium-class passenger, “We might pull some additional salad and make them a bigger salad” and incorporate a cheese plate.”We’ve definitely gotten good at ‘McGyvering,'” she said. .

آگوست 24, 2022

The couple traveling in a world of sounds

(CNN) — Seven years ago, American Libby Green was traveling with her mom in Italy and France, capping off their trip with a visit to the southern French Mediterranean resort city of Nice before flying back to the US. Meanwhile, German-born Marcel Gnauk and a friend were also in Nice, attending the Crossover Festival, a celebration of eclectic music. Walking on the city’s beachfront Promenade des Anglais, Marcel spotted Libby wielding a Hasselblad, a traditional medium-format film camera, and couldn’t resist approaching her. “I love old cameras, Hasselblad, that’s amazing,” he recalls telling her. The pair chatted about the camera and travel, and he invited her to go to the music festival that evening. The next day, Libby flew back to the US, but they kept in contact. Less than a month later Libby traveled to Italy, and she and Marcel, who was working in Switzerland, met up again. “That’s when I think we knew, okay, this is something special, something serious,” says Libby. In 2022, Libby and Marcel recorded sounds in Bangkok’s historic railway station. Libby & MarcelMarcel then visited Libby in Los Angeles, where she was working in the film industry after studying cinematography, and they traveled together for a few weeks around California. By that point they knew they wanted to be together and travel the world. So, Marcel returned to Switzerland, Libby stayed in LA, working for another five months to save money. They bought a campervan, and in January 2015 Marcel met Libby at Zurich Airport. “In less than a year we had quit our jobs, and sold everything we owned basically,” says Libby. They then spent four months traveling around Europe. A campervan trip in Japan followed, then time in Bali, Taiwan, Cambodia and Malaysia.In the years since their passion has grown, not just for each other, but for a world of sounds, recorded with their high-end microphones, and shared on their social media. The couple turned a practical issue of recording sound for a travel video they were making in Cambodia into a full time business that sustains their digital nomadic life. But it took some time before they discovered their calling. ‘Everything became alive’In the early years of their relationship, sharing their travel experiences online became part of their routine. Libby is skilled using a camera. But they struggled to find a focus. “There was Libby and Marcel trying to be food bloggers,” recalls Libby. “It was a disaster,” adds Marcel. “But it was a good learning experience,” notes Libby. Then, in Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, Libby filmed some pigeons taking flight that she wanted to use in a film. But she couldn’t capture the sound of their wing beats. They looked on the internet, searching sound libraries, but couldn’t find anything appropriate. So, Marcel took a $100 audio recorder, and went searching for the missing sound to record. He didn’t find any pigeons — but he did manage to change the direction of the couple’s future. Marcel turned the recorder on in a small construction zone where women were shoveling gravel, listening through a cheap set of headphones.He was awed not just by the sounds of construction, but there were monks chanting, and motorcycles passing by behind, honking their horns. “It was just like the sound was falling into my head from all sides,” says Marcel. “Everything became alive, and from that day until now I have never stopped recording.” A passion for soundIn the six years since that first recording, Libby and Marcel have captured audio in more than 25 countries, mostly in Asia, Europe and North America, spending months at a time in each country. They have developed a more sophisticated recording setup to encompass stereo, Ambisonic and binaural techniques — but still compact enough to fit their traveling lifestyle. This has meant investing in high-end microphones and recorders to fulfill their ongoing passion of sharing authentic soundscapes from each location. “We are documenting the world through sounds,” says Libby. “We are also trying to be a source of inspiration for others to look at sounds in a different way.”It can be an expensive passion. Typically, high fidelity recording equipment stretches into the thousands of dollars for individual microphones and audio recorders. For example, one of their stereo recording kits encompassing German made microphones costs around $8,000. But for Libby and Marcel it’s not just about equipment. Their aim is to really experience a place through sound. For instance, they took two days to visit Iceland’s now well-known black sand beach at Solheimasandur. They made the two-hour hike there and back carrying their equipment, spending up to 10 hours each day recording in the wind and hail. A favorite memory was recording around the iconic wreckage of a US Navy Douglas aircraft that force landed on the beach in 1973. “It was just amazing, how it sounds, how the metal is cracking in the wind,” says Marcel. In 2020, the couple took their mobile recording studio to the coast of Iceland. Libby & MarcelTwo hundred meters from the abandoned aircraft, waves crashed on the black sand beach. “The terror of the water. This is something you have to experience,” adds Marcel. “If you just go there and take a picture and then you leave, you are missing out on so much.”Free To Use SoundsLibby and Marcel share these experiences through Instagram (@freetousesounds) and their YouTube channel (Free To Use Sounds — Traveling for Sounds). Through their postings they offer not just their passion and experiences recording sounds, but also details of the equipment and techniques they use. Libby shoots and edits their YouTube videos, and manages their website (www.freetousesounds.com). Marcel does most of the sound recording and editing, as well as the social media postings. Through their website they offer 145 royalty-free sound libraries with over 140,000 free downloads of sound effects and ambient sounds to support creators. Additionally, they offer a range of premium sound libraries for purchase aimed at commercial users such as post-production, gaming and sound design creatives. A passion becomes a businessMarcel says their “a-ha” moment came when he was sitting in front of a computer in 2017.Libby had added a donation button to their website, and a Hollywood post-production creative had donated a few bucks. “I’m like, ‘Oh! We just made three dollars!'” recalls Marcel of their first donation. It was then that he realized others shared a passion for sound — and were willing to pay for it. “We wanted to be a source that’s affordable for all types of people to download the sounds,” says Libby. From this beginning Libby and Marcel have developed a suite of premium sound libraries for purchase as well as free to download sounds. And they’re still excited to travel to new places and record new sounds. “It does not feel like work because we are just loving what we are doing,” says Marcel. “I know we are still going to be traveling, still recording sounds in five years,” adds Libby.The challenges of a nomadic lifeAs for the drawbacks of the nomadic lifestyle? Libby and Marcel have no home base and are constantly traveling. They’ve fought through tough times, almost running out of money. “When you have a home base you have more of a concrete routine,” says Libby. “For us it is always changing, so sometimes that takes more effort, more money.” Marcel in Hong Kong, in 2020. Libby & Marcel“And we have so much backlog of sounds,” adds Marcel, referring to their unedited recordings. “It is more exciting to record, to be in the present than sitting back with studio headphones.”But the couple prefers to work on their own, without outside assistance. “We don’t have anyone else besides us, it is just the two of us,” says Libby. “Maybe it’s trust issues, but for us, we know what we can do”.Where to nextLibby and Marcel recently left South Korea to continue their travels in Malaysia. Their next big plan is to travel the Pan American highway from Alaska to Ushuaia, towards the southern tip of South America. “I think going to Antarctica to record sounds would be a dream. ‘Whoosh, a glacier breaks off,'” says a smiling Marcel. But whether it is a transcontinental road trip, or the frozen wastes of the Earth’s southernmost continent, Libby and Marcel’s passion for each other and the sounds they record will always be with them. And, as Marcel says, “It takes us 45 minutes to pack our stuff and be at the next airport.” .

آگوست 12, 2022

China tourist destination set a GDP target, but Covid locked it down

Sanya, on the southern coast of Hainan, was the top destination for couples flying from three of China’s largest cities last week for China’s version of Valentine’s Day, according to booking site Trip.com.Lucas Schifres | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesBEIJING — China’s tourist-heavy province of Hainan is falling further behind lofty growth goals it set in January.Back then, the island said it aimed for 9% GDP growth this year. But like China’s economy overall, growth is running far below initial targets — due in a large part to outbreaks of a far more transmissible Covid variant.A surge in Covid infections this month forced Hainan’s oceanside resort city of Sanya to order tens of thousands of tourists to stay put at their hotels, and local residents to stay at home. Haikou, the province’s capital, also issued stay-home orders.Airlines cancelled flights, leaving tourists stranded on Hainan island since Saturday. In the last few days, some people have been able to return to the mainland on government-organized charter flights.But questions remain — about uniform implementation of hotel stay subsidies, the cost of food and how soon most tourists can return to their homes.”The public image and reputation of Hainan is damaged for the short term,” said Jacques Penhirin, a partner in the Greater China office of Oliver Wyman. “When I talk to the client they’re all looking at the bookings for [the upcoming fall holiday] which are still quite resilient. People have not cancelled yet, but it’s not looking good. Probably down on last year.”It’s “going to be bad for luxury brands and hospitality at least until Chinese New Year next year,” he said, referring to the Lunar New Year holiday in late January 2023.Hainan’s economyIn late July, China’s top leaders indicated the country might miss the GDP target of around 5.5% set in March. Beijing did not signal any large-scale stimulus, or any change to its “dynamic zero-Covid” policy.The national economy grew by just 2.5% in the first half of the year, according to official figures. Hainan’s economy underperformed even that sluggish pace, only growing by 1.6% in the first half of 2022.That’s a sharp slowdown from the island’s 11.2% GDP growth for all of 2021.In fact, Hainan’s growth last year was second only to that of Hubei province, pointed out Ying Zhang, research analyst at the Economist Intelligence Unit.Read more about China from CNBC Pro”Because of the international travel restriction, Hainan has benefited from the tourism revenue, up by nearly 60% last year,” she said. Zhang estimates tourism accounts for more than 80% of Hainan’s economy.Sanya, on the southern coast of Hainan, was the top destination for couples flying from three of China’s largest cities last week for China’s version of Valentine’s Day, according to booking site Trip.com.The island boasts one of the few beachfront locations for international luxury hotels like Mandarin Oriental and Hyatt in mainland China.Hainan is also building out duty-free shopping malls as part of central government’s push to turn the island into a free trade hub and international shopping area.Sales at duty-free stores on the island surged by 84% last year to 60.17 billion yuan ($8.93 billion), according to official figures.During a consumer goods expo in Hainan in late July, sales at four duty-free stores rose by 27% year-on-year to 330 million yuan, the customs agency said.Another hit to confidenceSo far, cosmetics brands rely far more on Hainan for sales than affordable luxury brands — potentially up to a third of their China business, said Oliver Wyman’s Penhirin. He said Hainan generally accounts for less than 5% of China sales for affordable luxury brands, while high-end luxury has yet to enter that market.An Oliver Wyman survey in May found that after roughly two months of lockdown in the metropolis of Shanghai, respondents from luxury and premium consumer brands cut their China growth expectations for the year by 15 percentage points.Tens of thousands of tourists were stranded in the resort city of Sanya, Hainan, this week as local Covid outbreaks prompted airlines to cancel flights.Str | Afp | Getty Images”The question is definitely when will consumer regain confidence and peace of mind of travel and shopping which is further delayed by this Hainan incident,” Penhirin said, noting he expects this month’s lockdowns will be forgotten in one or two years.”It’s more about the confidence than the income itself, especially for the luxury goods,” he said.In the meantime, he said brands should put more effort to track their inventory in China, to make sure products aren’t being sold at levels that might induce a price war. .

آگوست 11, 2022

Nigeria: Kizz Daniel Apologises to Tanzanians, Promises Free Show for Fans

“I didn’t mean to disrespect the fans. It was never intentional. I wanted to perform”.
Nigerian music star Kizz Daniel has apologised to Tanzanian music fans for failing to show up at a Summer Amplified Show.
Str8up Vibes organised the event.
The organisers arrested the Buga hitmaker for failing to perform at Sunday night’s well-publicised show.
The singer’s absence angered fans who came to see him perform, causing them to thrash the show’s venue.
The organisers of the Summer Amplified Show in Tanzania arrested the Buga hitmaker for failing to perform at the well-publicised show on Sunday night.
In an interview session with radio personality Daddy Freeze, the show promoter Steven Uwa said that Kizz Daniel opted out of the show because the airline he flew with did not bring all his baggage.

The show promoter revealed that Kizz Daniel was booked for $60,000.
He also revealed that he spent nothing less than $300,000 on the show because it was a premium event.
He also lamented the flimsy reason the singer gave after he failed to perform and explained why he got him arrested.
Apologies
Addressing a press conference in Tanzania, Kizz Daniel said he had agreed with Str8up Vibes that the show must go on.
“We agreed to put up a show on Friday. A free show. So, I will be partnering with Str8up Vibes.

Also, I must apologise to the fans. None of this was intentional. I love my job. Mainly, I love performing.
“I didn’t mean to disrespect the fans. It was never intentional. I wanted to perform. I came to Tanzania to perform, but due to some circumstances way over my power, we couldn’t make that happen.

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“I apologise once again to the people of Tanzania, and I hope you guys give me another chance to give you a show, to give you a proper show, a beautiful show,” the ‘Buga’ crooner said.
Reasons for absence
Explaining the reason behind his missing the show, Kizz Daniel said when he arrived in Nairobi from Kampala, the plane he was supposed to fly in (connecting flight) had already departed.
He then stayed in Nairobi for eight hours and got a connecting flight at 8:30 p.m.
Upon arriving in Dar es Salaam, he said he discovered that some of his belongings had been forgotten.
“The organisers assured me we’d get other equipment. We arrived at the hotel at 9 p.m. and sent my band to the hall to practice.
“Unfortunately, the band failed because the fans had already entered the venue.
“I tried contacting the designers here to get clothes. When I decided to leave the venue, I was told it was unsafe already. The fans got angry”.
“We agreed with the organisers that we will apologise to the fans and organise another show.
“On the second day, news spread and the police followed me to the hotel, not to arrest me but to question me about what happened,” he said.

ژوئن 2, 2022

What if airplanes were wider? Plane interior concept re-imagines inflight seating

Editor’s Note — Monthly Ticket is a new CNN Travel series that spotlights some of the most fascinating topics in the travel world. In June, we’re taking to the skies for a look at the latest developments in plane interiors, including the people working to change the way we fly. (CNN) — You might not know that the standard for today’s airline seat sizing goes all the way back to 1954. That’s when Boeing first flew the prototype that would lead to the jet age’s iconic 707. As Boeing developed its aircraft families, it reused core elements like the fuselage, even as it developed new wings and engines. For instance, the 727 was essentially a 707 but with the engines at the back. The 737 — still manufactured today — was and is essentially a 707 but with two engines instead of four.The 707’s seats, arranged with six in each row in “tourist” or “coach,” as economy used to be called, were pretty good for 1954, but that was nearly 70 years ago. You might not know a lot of people who were adults in 1954, but if you do, make the most of their impressive longevity and compare their general size and stature next to a strapping, well-nourished 18-year-old of today. All things being equal, you’ll probably note that people these days are quite a bit bigger — taller, with wider shoulders and wider hips.But the Boeing 737 — which has a fuselage width of 148 inches (3.76 meters), just like the 707s — still seats six people in every row. No wonder planes seem more cramped today, even the slightly wider Airbus A320s, which tends to offer an 18″ seat, or the A220 (designed by Bombardier as the C Series), which offers 19″. Top: A Boeing 707, the aircraft maker’s first jetliner. Bottom: A Boeing 737-800 in Hanover, Germany, in 2013. Getty Images, Getty ImagesBut what if these single-aisle airplanes were just, well, bigger? That’s a question that aviation interior consultancy LIFT Aero Design is asking with a concept called Paradym. Managing Director Daniel Baron and design partner Aaron Yong are refreshingly open that Paradym really does need a new paradigm: wider planes.“Paradym is a configuration concept for the next generation of single-aisle aircraft,” Baron tells CNN. “It adopts a higher standard of comfort in economy class using wide triple seats. What’s totally different is the idea of a new single-aisle aircraft that is considerably wider than today’s 737 or A320 families. “Every row in Paradym would have wide triple seats, with 20 inches between armrests instead of the current 17-18. Every row would also have two armrests between seats instead of one.”The concept would allow airlines to modify these three seats to offer different levels of service according to demand, including economy and premium economy. There is a lie-flat option as well. Changing traveler needsLIFT is asking the question at a particularly pivotal time, particularly for the narrowbody single-aisle aircraft that make up most of the world’s short-to-medium-haul fleet, and a small but growing part of its long-haul services.Boeing has stretched the 1960s airframe of the Boeing 737 as far as it can with the 737 MAX. Airbus is getting that way with the A320neo evolution of the 1980s’ A320. Add that to the opportunities for hydrogen power, and it seems likely that both airplane makers will need to build a fully new plane for their next narrowbody. Now is the time to talk about making that plane a bit wider.“The simple fact is that in the age of rising airfares, work-from-home-forever and the incoming metaverse revolution, airlines will need to reinvent themselves to stay relevant,” Baron argues. “Space in long-haul economy class has been shrinking as more space is allocated to premium classes for increasingly luxurious seats. And throughout the world, humans are getting larger in every direction. The seat width standards of yesterday may no longer be sufficient to keep frequent long haul flying attractive, especially with ultra long-haul flights now stretching 16-20 hours.”LIFT Aero Design’s concept would allow airlines to adapt a plane’s interiors according to demand. But first, aircraft makers are going to have to start making wider planes. LIFT Aero DesignCovid-19, too, has changed the way that many people perceive their own personal “bubble” of space, while rising rates of onboard disruption from unruly passengers seem likely linked to the fact that seat rows are, by and large, a few inches closer to each other than they were in previous years, and that there are more seats in each row.When the Boeing 777 first started flying in the 1990s, almost all mainline airlines put nine economy seats in each row. Today, almost all of them have 10. When Boeing designed the 787 Dreamliner in the 2000s, it advertised a comfortable eight-abreast seating standard and a nine-abreast option for low cost carriers — but, in reality, only Japan Airlines took the eight-abreast seating.From an airline accountant’s point of view, this makes sense. The received wisdom in the aviation industry — and the ongoing success of low-cost carriers — is that any comfort qualms are settled by cheaper ticket prices, and that very few passengers choose their flight on anything other than price and schedule.‘A cabin with no curtains or dividers’Airlines, Baron explains, “have access to highly sophisticated revenue management software to adjust fares, but at the end of the day, cannot physically adjust seats in multi-class aircraft to meet ever-fluctuating demand.” Some have tried, like with the kind of convertible seat previously used by some European carriers to create a wider berth for their middle-seat-free-economy Eurobusiness-style seating, but this has now largely been removed.“Moving forward,” Baron says, “for airlines the key to sustainable profitability will be the ability to tailor the entire experience to customer needs.”These can change even for the same person between trips: a road warrior has different needs if she is on a one-hour day flight to Omaha alone versus with her family flying eight hours overnight to Europe on vacation. “We already see a trend toward product unbundling,” LIFT’s Aaron Yong says, referring to airlines selling individual mini-upgrade products like extra legroom seats, better meals, lounge access, more luggage, and so on. “Paradym is a configuration concept for the next generation of single aisle aircraft,” says LIFT managing director Daniel Baron. LIFT Aero Design“In the future, demand for flexibility in seat product and inflight service options will only rise. In this context, the primary advantage of Paradym for airlines is the ability to sell multiple products with a single seat model throughout the aircraft. Customers would be able to book any experience on offer by the airline, with the airline able to continually tweak in order to optimize revenue generation for the flight, using every row in the aircraft, until departure.”“Paradym envisions a cabin with no curtains or dividers,” Yong explains, comparing triple seat sets to sets of four seats, or quads. “The concept of traditional classes is replaced by products. The airline could sell any row from nose to tail as economy, premium economy and/or a lie flat product ie, the customer purchases three seats and gets a wide sleeping surface nearly as long as a quad. It could be combined with premium food, IFE and amenities and sold as ‘premium economy flat’, a brand new product category.”That might not be for the famous names with their firmly established brands and well-known brands: Delta One, United Polaris, British Airways Club World, and so on. But new airlines start up all the time, and often the old guard realizes that there can be real benefits to the new crowd’s way of doing things. Is that enough, though, for a Paradym shift?Top image: LIFT Aero Design’s Paradym concept. Credit: LIFT Aero Design .