Since the 1990s, London has led the world’s airline design sector. But with challenges aplenty, will it continue?
Whatever the airline, whatever the route you fly on, there’s a high chance the cabin interiors and seats were designed in London. The city’s dominance in the niche activity of commercial aviation design has its roots in the late 1990s, when UK-based competitors British Airways and Virgin Atlantic raised the bar with the first lie-flat beds for their premium classes.
“The creative thinking that originated from London on these projects was the foundation of a more passenger-focused and innovative onboard experience,” says PriestmanGoode chairman Nigel Goode.
Soon, airlines and seat manufacturers around the world were knocking on the doors of the most prolific specialist agencies – Acumen Design Associates, PriestmanGoode, Tangerine, JPA, Factorydesign, and forpeople. And while a recession or two, a global pandemic and supply chain disruption have created set-backs, the city’s dominance remains.
There are strong transport design competitors in the US (Teague and BMW designworks) and also in Germany, France, and Australia, but “London-based consultancies consistently outperform them in securing aviation contracts,” says Tangerine owner, Martin Darbyshire. It’s not unusual for some of these firms to find themselves on the same plane heading towards the same pitch.
PriestmanGoode’s business class cabins for Aegean Airlines
How has London maintained world domination in this slice of the industrial design sector? And will it continue?
The agencies themselves put the capital’s primacy down to education. There are no degrees in cabin interior design, but the UK is seen as a centre of excellence for design engineering through institutions like The Royal College of Art, Central St Martins, Loughborough University and Coventry University.
These tend to feed the aviation design industry, with their graduates starting their careers in the capital, “providing a rich pool of talent for the top aviation design studios”, says Acumen CEO Ian Dryburgh.
He sees a lot of cross-fertilisation between agencies as staff move from one to the other. “This highly competitive arena encourages healthy domestic competition to raise the overall design bar and scale of ambition,” Dryburgh says.
In this sector, specialist know-how is king. “The airline industry has, possibly, the most stringent certification regulations in the world, and it takes many years to build up that sort of knowledge,” says Martin Darbyshire at Tangerine.
“It’s difficult for new players to break into this space and become credible without the integrity of a strong portfolio of work.”
New Territory’s refreshed Delta Main Cabin
The feeling among all these designers is that London’s dominance will continue. “The majority of commercial aviation experience, knowledge and expertise resides here,” says Adam White, director at Factorydesign. “As the industry is very keen on experience, London agencies can only continue to sit high on the list of favourites.”
Acumen’s Dryburgh echoes this, but warns that continuing to attract talent with the right mix of creative and technical skills is crucial. “It takes a certain skill-set which is a combination of industry knowledge, ability to create, commercial nous, coupled with ability to render, turning a 2D sketch into a 3D visualisation.”
Elliott Koehler, creative director of JPA Design, is aware that the world of commercial aviation design “is not always front of mind with many young designers, so we feel it is our responsibility to promote it as an exciting field to work in.”
To that end, JPA has run intern programmes to help attract new designers and often finds that “once designers get a taste for aviation, they make it a career.”
Factorydesign’s Retreat Suite Seat for Virgin Atlantic
That’s fine for UK graduates, but the sector, with so many overseas clients, has traditionally thrived on its diversity. And the UK is not as welcoming, or attractive, as it once was.
“The UK’s current visa policies and income thresholds present challenges when recruiting diverse, international teams,” says Dryburgh. “Restrictions on work permits and immigration make it difficult to hire and retain the best global talent, especially at the junior level. The cost of hiring non-UK staff can be prohibitive, and companies may need to pay higher salaries to retain them, which can be a disadvantage.”
As well as these challenges, it’s worth factoring in changing attitudes to flying. From climate change to the rise in remote working technology like Zoom, some people are taking fewer flights. That’s why even the most prolific designers in this sector are anything but complacent.
Acumen’s The Apartment first class cabin for Etihad
