Airbus has developed a flexible new concept that would enable a wheelchair user to remain in their own chair onboard aircraft, whilst also providing seating for their flying companions.
The so-called Multi Purpose Compartment, which facilitates a wheelchair tie-down, is still very much in the concept phase, but Airbus is soliciting feedback from airlines, Airbus vice president cabin marketing Ingo Wuggetzer revealed to Runway Girl Network during the APEX Global Expo in Long Beach.
When not needed for a wheelchair, the Multi Purpose Compartment would simply be used for regular seating, albeit in a quad formation with two seats facing rearwards.
“It’s a little compartment that you can flexibly have seating, or a wheelchair positioned. I think that in terms of efficiency, that’s an improvement because you can also host a companion in that” or indeed companions, plural, noted Wuggetzer.
The Multi Purpose Compartment is still in the ‘concept’ phase and Airbus is eager to receive feedback. Image copyright: Airbus Operations GmbH
News that Airbus is honing this concept comes hard on the heels of the US Federal Aviation Administration’s declaration that it will provide safety guidance for facilitating a wheelchair tie-down onboard aircraft in 2025. And it emerges at a time when the Air4All consortium’s partner, Delta Flight Products, is nearing supplemental type certification for its own onboard wheelchair securement system, as confirmed by DFP product innovation manager Tyler Anderson at the show.
“Because we don’t [manufacture] these solutions, it’s always some supplier we need to build and certify it. So that’s why I’m happy that there are initiatives out there like Air4All that is driven with Delta Flight Products and so we are supporting the process and hope that they can certify soon,” Wuggetzer said.
“So, we are getting there. And I think that is definitely a very good solution that I can imagine we’ll see flying soon. And if you have a solution like that, it could be more than one. It depends on what you’re talking about. Is it a single aisle? Is it a widebody? But there’s flexibility to integrate it in all first rows. It’s a first-row solution. That’s what you need [for that design].”
The economy class model of Air4All would see two seats flip up to accommodate a wheelchair. Image: PriestmanGoode
If airlines move to adopt wheelchair tie-down solutions onboard (or are compelled by regulation to do so), it will be important to have a truly accessible lavatory available onboard.
To that end, Airbus has “ideas how to do that also, a lot more efficient than today’s ideas” and hopes to reveal more details in April at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Wuggetzer revealed to RGN.
But Airbus is not limiting its accessibility work to wheelchair users. A cross-industry workshop hosted in July at the Airbus Experience Center in Washington D.C. identified three key themes — a “magic triangle” — that would A) facilitate a wheelchair on board, B) ensure there is a PRM lavatory, and C) provide digital solutions and services, all anchored by optimized interior layouts.
The Magic Triangle of needs emerged from Airbus’ cross-industry workshop, dubbed X-Industry. Notably, during the workshop, 76% of participants said there’s demand for wheelchair tie-downs and for ensuring that companions can fly along. Image: Airbus
A lot of travelers have impaired vision or impaired hearing. “So, this we need to tackle as well,” noted Wuggetzer.
For example, tactile interior surfaces can give blind travelers a navigation tool but they require some industry standardization. Wuggetzer suggested that the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX), which develops industry standards and hosts the APEX Global Expo and other passenger experience (PaxEx) events worldwide, “could be a great vehicle” to drive standards around tactile surfaces.
United Airlines has already done work in this regard, becoming the first US airline to introduce Braille to its cabins, and United’s director of inflight entertainment, Dominic Green, has just been named president of the APEX Board of Directors.
The cross-industry workshop brought together a ‘who’s who’ of players. Image: Airbus, as snapped by Mary Kirby at APEX Global Expo
In terms of the cost of making flying more accessible for disabled travelers, Wuggetzer said there is an opportunity for industry to “change perspective” and see these types of accommodations as revenue generators for airlines.
“So we started the process” to develop more accessible solutions and “we are in the middle of it.”
He admitted to feeling more confident that industry is now heading in the right direction. “It looks more promising than I would say in the beginning of the year.”
From left to right at the Panasonic Avionics-sponsored APEX Global Expo conference: Airbus vice president cabin marketing Ingo Wuggetzer; Jack Kavanagh, member of the Board of Directors of the National Disability Authority and Center for Excellence in Universal Design; Delta Flight Products product innovation manager Tyler Anderson’ and PriestmanGoode associate director strategy Jo Rowan. Image: Mary Kirby
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