Last week, I was in Germany to attend Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg Messe. The event welcomed more than 550 exhibitors from all around the world. Every year, more than 14,000 aviation professionals, airlines and international press go to Hamburg for AIX. The event is huge and covers approximately 24,000 metres square (258,334 feet square) of flooring. As you can see below, the large floor plan includes different buildings that are a walking distance from each other.

Below is a list of the major products you can find at Aircraft Interiors Expo:

• Seats (First, Business Premium Economy and Economy)
• Seats fabrics
• Seats armrests
• Seat power ports (110V and USB)
• Racks that hold seats on the floor
• Carpets for flooring
• Cabin lighting
• Galley carts
• Lavatories
• Inflight Entertainment (IFE)
• And more!

Major News Announced

• Zodiac Aerospace unveiled an economy seat for the Boeing 777X.
• Hawaiian Airlines showed their future A321neo cabin interior by JPA Design
• Recaro presented the Smart Cabin Reconfiguration for the A320 family. It revealed a quick way to swap seats between higher-density economy and more spacious Eurobusiness seats.
• Airbus announced a new cabin version of its jumbo jet to accommodate an additional 80 seats.
• ATR partnered with Geven to offer an increased seat width from 17″ to a more comfortable 18″.
• Molon Labe updates its Slide-Slip Seat: the aisle seat slips over the middle seat for expedited boarding process.
• Altran presented an autonomous robot trolley that can drive itself through the aisle.
• HAECO Cabin Solutions offers a cocktail tray and PDE holder that will be offered on the Vector premium seat.

Hawaiian Airlines A321neos will feature both First Class and Economy seats manufactured by B/E Aerospace. (Photo: Hawaiian Airlines)

World Travel Catering Expo (WTCE)

A l’Olivier, based in Paris, provides olive oil dressing for salads to airlines such as Air Canada.

On the other side of the road was held the World Traveling Catering Expo (WTCE). On-site, visitors had the opportunity to try and sample anything from munchies to First class level cuisine. Many of the major airline catering providers (gategroup, dnata and LSG Group) were at the event. There were also many smaller companies I have never heard before.

There were many small firms that provided important products for the food catering industry, such as the aluminum foil that cover the hot meals in economy. You could also find different sizes of aluminum containers for meals, plastic cups for drinks and various sizes and shapes of cutlery. There were also providers of amenity kits for premium cabins, as well as companies that design crew uniforms.

Overview of one of the two WTCE exhibits.

While walking, I saw a cleaning machine that was spinning vertically to clean galley carts. It sprayed water and soap and the centrifugal force disinfected the beverage trolleys for their next flight. It was pretty amazing to watch!

As an #avgeek, it was impressive to see all those providers. There are so many that you would not think at first. I definitely hope to go back next year for the 2018 edition!

Until next time!

Nicolas