Five stars above the clouds

“The customization trend in the aviation sector continues unabated. It is with this in mind that our focus at the trade show will reflect exactly what the market wants: customized solutions and creative approaches. Every customer is unique for us and has their unique wishes and needs. As a partner and innovation driver, we will be offering our five-star program to airlines and aircraft manufacturers in the future with a unique portfolio of add-on services offering maximum flexibility and cost-efficiency, while providing passengers with the highest level of comfort and safety,” says Dr. Mark Hiller, Chief Executive Officer and Shareholder, Recaro Aircraft Seating.

Five stars – five highlights

During the three-day trade show in Hamburg, the long-established company from Schwaebisch Hall will be presenting current product developments for the economy and business classes, as well as innovative seating concepts – under the “Added value from Recaro” motto. Aircraft seats from Recaro have stood for unrivaled quality, design and comfort for over 40 years. The new Recaro stars will illustrate how good ideas are transformed into real product innovations, while meeting the aviation industry’s future requirements. In order for this dynamic development process to succeed again and again, more than 2,000 employees work diligently at four production sites around the world to make the world of flying even better and easier.

Flex Seat: more legroom thanks to enhanced cabin flexibility

If the aircraft is not fully occupied, the cabin crew can ‘decompress’ the entire seat configuration in the cabin like an accordion – with just a few simple moves. In a collaborative research project with Airbus targeting a flexible cabin concept, Recaro further developed its lightweight, maintenance-friendly SL3510 seat, making it foldable as well. The last row of seats can be easily collapsed, enabling the front rows to be moved backwards – increasing the seat spacing for passengers. This allows the airline to adjust the number of seats in an aircraft to the actual number of passengers on each flight.

Wellbeing: that ‘something extra’ on board

The company’s acclaimed triad of functionality, ergonomics and aesthetics – “Recaro’s Ingenious Design” – now has the perfect partner. The triad of light, warmth and massage – “Recaro’s Wellbeing star” – can be experienced by business class passengers in the further evolved CL6710. The aviation sector took over these popular components (light sensor, seat heating and massage function) from the automotive industry. Visitors to the booth, will have an opportunity to take part in a 3D experience of this premium product in a virtual-reality exhibit.

Antibacterial solutions: a real plus in hygiene and cleanliness

Recaro is setting new standards in terms of cleanliness and hygiene in the aircraft cabin. Surfaces treated with a special antibacterial coating on the frequently touched plastic parts of aircraft seats provide passengers with increased protection from bacteria. Thanks to the antibacterial properties of the coating, 99 percent of the bacteria disappear within three hours, and over 99.9 percent will have disappeared after 24 hours.

iSeat: an information leap and cost advantage

The “Internet of things”, today’s prevailing technological and digital revolution, is driving researchers and developers worldwide to search for the newest application possibilities. Recaro is already a step ahead in this fascinating field. With its “intelligent seat”, the company is demonstrating that a highly complex digital interior life – including sensors, scanners and transmitting units in the aircraft seat – can perform at an extremely high level and transfer key seat information as well as operating system data to the cabin crew and the ground station – via satellite in real time. The results are impressive: cost reductions through early fault detection and diagnosis, savings in terms of manual controls and predictable service intervals. Furthermore, all seat functions can be operated and controlled easily and quickly by the passenger via mobile communications and the right app. This digital networking comes to life with the CL6710 from Recaro, the “hotel room above the clouds”.

Customer service: everything from a single source

As an EASA-certified Design Organization (DOA), Recaro will be offering its customers comprehensive service for modification projects and retrofit assignments in the aircraft cabin. Technical changes to individual aircraft seat components or modifications can now be carried out directly and cost-effectively by Recaro – and this, the world over. The time required and the complexity of the assignments for the ground crews can be significantly reduced.

Recaro Aircraft Seating's five-star package demonstrates a myriad ideas that can be smoothly integrated into the value chain of airline manufacturers and airlines, offering additional advantages, enabling customization and promising passengers a unique flying experience. Moreover, the aircraft seat manufacturer, which received the coveted Airbus “Excellent Supplier” award in 2016, with its modular seating system, offers airlines an enormous selection of products, beginning with high-quality materials and fabrics, through footrests and headrests, to an intelligent storage concept and the most diverse IFE systems.

Along with Recaro’s well-known lightweight economy and premium economy class seats, visitors to the show will also experience the evolution of the CL6710 business class seat into an “intelligent seat” – with interactive demonstrations at Recaro’s 1,000-square-meter stand.

“We are looking forward to a creative and constructive dialog with our guests and customers at the Aircraft Interiors Expo. We are confident that we are on the right track with our many innovations to help shape the future of aviation,” says Dr. Mark Hiller. “Having increased our turnover by more than ten percent in 2016, our company will continue on its strong growth trend. We are currently investing globally in more staff and in expanding our sites.”