Dubai | April 5, 2017– Dubai-based carrier flydubai and the German aircraft seat manufacturer Recaro Aircraft Seating today announced at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg the continuation of their long-standing partnership.

The carrier will equip its new Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, scheduled to enter service in the second half of 2017, with Recaro Aircraft Seating’s global bestseller CL3710. The seat will reflect the maturity of the airline as well as the growing network it serves, ranging from Prague in the west to Bangkok on the east. The order builds on the successful relationship between flydubai and Recaro Aircraft Seating. Since 2008, flydubai has equipped its current fleet of 58 Next-Generation Boeing 737-800s with premium seats from the German seat manufacturer.

“Opting for Recaro Aircraft Seating when we launched our airline in 2008 has proved to be the right choice. The seats with their revolutionary design have substantially reduced the weight of our aircraft, resulting in lower fuel costs. We pass these savings on to our passengers through lower fares without compromising comfort on board,” said flydubai’s Chief Executive Officer, Ghaith Al Ghaith, about the new order. “We are excited to continue our collaboration with Recaro Aircraft Seating on the CL3710 seats for our new aircraft. They will enhance the overall experience on board with added comfort, functionality and aesthetics, that complement our newly redesigned cabin interior.”

The CL3710 economy class seat reflects Recaro Aircraft Seating’s Ingenious Design with the perfect combination of ergonomics, function and aesthetics. Weighing less than 12 kilograms, it is one of the lightest seats in its class and stands out with its numerous comfortable features. For example, the six-way adjustable, ergonomic headrest has the ability to tilt horizontally, offering passengers outstanding comfort through optimal neck support.

“flydubai and Recaro have been trusting and successful partners for many years. We are extremely pleased about the opportunity to continue our partnership with this major order for CL3710 economy class seats. We are proud to contribute to the success of flydubai’s continuously expanding fleet,” said Dr. Mark Hiller, Chief Executive Officer and Shareholder of Recaro Aircraft Seating.

April 10, 2015– The new dedicated Airline Services Interiors business, one of three distinct divisions under a new streamlined structure to be unveiled by Airline Services Ltd next week at Aircraft Interiors Expo (Hall 6 Stand B78), has completed the in-flight entertainment system retrofit programme for Economy class seats on 13 Boeing 747 and 18 Airbus A340 aircraft operated by Lufthansa.

Airline Services Interiors has been responsible for the design, certification, and manufacture of modification kits to install the Zodiac Zii RAVE system on Recaro 3520 seats. As part of the seat upgrade, Airline Services Interiors has also integrated a universal power socket at every seat.

Zodiac Zii RAVE is a touch screen tablet based IFE system and provides high resolution Audio and Video on Demand (AVOD). Its unique system architecture means each seat is independent so that a failure in one seat will not impact another and any failed displays can be replaced by the crew in-flight.

Contract award was in 2012 with kit delivery starting in 2013 and completed in March 2015. Physical integration was performed by Lufthansa at designated sites in Germany, Malta and China. Airline Services Interiors’ Passenger Seating Centre of Excellence in Manchester contributed to the successful programme supporting Lufthansa on the repair and modification of seats.

Headed by Managing Director Martin Barnes, Airline Services Interiors’ portfolio comprises three market focused capabilities – Through Life Services, Engineered Products and Managed Solutions, which was responsible for the Lufthansa programme.

Managed Solutions brings together Airline Services Interiors’ in-house design, manufacturing and turnkey modification with its EASA Part 21G design and manufacturing production capability. This enables it to deliver customised solutions for airlines to redesign, refurbish or upgrade their cabin interiors seating and IFE.

Seattle, WA | April 23, 2013/PRNewswire/– Travelers flying on Alaska Airlines starting this fall will enjoy new aircraft seats that feature a personal space-enhancing design and are equipped with power outlets. The airline is also nearing a decision on an enhanced inflight entertainment system that will allow customers to watch movies, television shows and other programming streamed to any Wi-Fi-enabled device.

The $100 million project to upgrade the cabins on all of Alaska’s Boeing 737-800, -900 and -900ER aircraft is expected to be finished by the end of 2014.

“Passengers have responded very favorably to the innovative and comfortable Recaro seats on our 737-900ERs. Two other features we know they want the most are power for their electronic devices and enhanced inflight entertainment,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing. “Upgrading our other Next Generation 737 aircraft with Recaro seats, along with adding seat power and an improved inflight entertainment system, will complement our award-winning personal service and make flying more enjoyable for our customers.”

Alaska Airlines became the North America launch customer for the main cabin Recaro seat when the carrier took delivery of its first Boeing 737-900ER in November 2012. The seat’s slimmer design and location of the literature pocket at the top of the seatback enables Alaska to reconfigure its cabins while maintaining the same passenger comfort standards and personal space that are on its aircraft today. Six seats will be added to the airline’s 737-800s and nine seats to its 737-900s.

Alaska will be the only U.S. airline to provide power outlets at every seat on its equipped aircraft, which will include nearly three-quarters of the fleet. The outlets, supplying both 110-volt and USB power for tablets and smart phones, will be conveniently located on the seatback in front of each passenger.

The inflight entertainment solution under consideration will allow programming to be streamed wirelessly from a server onboard the aircraft to any Wi-Fi-enabled device, including passengers’ own laptops, tablets and smart phones as well as tablets provided by Alaska.

After reconfiguring its aircraft, Alaska Airlines’ 737-800s will accommodate 163 passengers (16 in first class and 147 in the main cabin). The carrier’s 737-900s will accommodate 181 passengers (16 in first class and 165 in the main cabin). Its 737-900ERs, which are not being reconfigured with more seats, also accommodate 16 passengers in first class and 165 in the main cabin. Alaska Airlines’ aircraft will provide passengers with the current fleet standard seat pitch of 31 to 32 inches and 3 inches of recline.

Editor’s note: High-resolution photographs showing the new seats and power outlets are available for download in the Alaska Airlines Newsroom image gallery at www.alaskaair.com/newsroom.

Alaska Airlines, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK), together with its partner regional airlines, serves 95 cities through an expansive network in Alaska, the Lower 48, Hawaii, Canada and Mexico. Alaska Airlines has ranked “Highest in Customer Satisfaction Among Traditional Network Carriers” in the J.D. Power and Associates North America Airline Satisfaction Study(SM) for five consecutive years from 2008 to 2012. For reservations, visit www.alaskaair.com. For more news and information, visit the Alaska Airlines Newsroom at www.alaskaair.com/newsroom.

– Travelers flying on Alaska Airlines starting this fall will enjoy new aircraft seats that feature a personal space-enhancing design and are equipped with power outlets.

Seattle, WA | April 23, 2013/PRNewswire/– Travelers flying on Alaska Airlines starting this fall will enjoy new aircraft seats that feature a personal space-enhancing design and are equipped with power outlets. The airline is also nearing a decision on an enhanced inflight entertainment system that will allow customers to watch movies, television shows and other programming streamed to any Wi-Fi-enabled device.

The $100 million project to upgrade the cabins on all of Alaska’s Boeing 737-800, -900 and -900ER aircraft is expected to be finished by the end of 2014.

“Passengers have responded very favorably to the innovative and comfortable Recaro seats on our 737-900ERs. Two other features we know they want the most are power for their electronic devices and enhanced inflight entertainment,” said Joe Sprague, Alaska Airlines’ vice president of marketing. “Upgrading our other Next Generation 737 aircraft with Recaro seats, along with adding seat power and an improved inflight entertainment system, will complement our award-winning personal service and make flying more enjoyable for our customers.”

Alaska Airlines became the North America launch customer for the main cabin Recaro seat when the carrier took delivery of its first Boeing 737-900ER in November 2012. The seat’s slimmer design and location of the literature pocket at the top of the seatback enables Alaska to reconfigure its cabins while maintaining the same passenger comfort standards and personal space that are on its aircraft today. Six seats will be added to the airline’s 737-800s and nine seats to its 737-900s.

Alaska will be the only U.S. airline to provide power outlets at every seat on its equipped aircraft, which will include nearly three-quarters of the fleet. The outlets, supplying both 110-volt and USB power for tablets and smart phones, will be conveniently located on the seatback in front of each passenger.

The inflight entertainment solution under consideration will allow programming to be streamed wirelessly from a server onboard the aircraft to any Wi-Fi-enabled device, including passengers’ own laptops, tablets and smart phones as well as tablets provided by Alaska.

After reconfiguring its aircraft, Alaska Airlines’ 737-800s will accommodate 163 passengers (16 in first class and 147 in the main cabin). The carrier’s 737-900s will accommodate 181 passengers (16 in first class and 165 in the main cabin). Its 737-900ERs, which are not being reconfigured with more seats, also accommodate 16 passengers in first class and 165 in the main cabin. Alaska Airlines’ aircraft will provide passengers with the current fleet standard seat pitch of 31 to 32 inches and 3 inches of recline.

The Aircraft Interiors mash-up in Hamburg ended this past week with some very interesting and unpredicted trends in the IFE space. For sure, the move toward smaller, thinner, lighter and more capable electronics was present. Second, third, and fourth generation electronics were claimed in the thin seat/thin and smart IFE world. Without a doubt, this is the trend of the next round of seatback/seat hardware. We really liked the Thales product!

There were a number of R&D projects almost ready for prime time: A wireless seat power development project that claimed 97% efficiency from KID (isn’t that better than wire?); a really great in-seat power supply design concept (Recaro and KID), which removed the seat power box and placed it in a central seat tube; a rapid prototyping capability for seat peripheral products (IFPC); a new, simple, content aggregation software from an Italian supplier; a new satcom/radio software data reduction algorithm that lops 40% of the overhead budget (TriaGnoSys); a new line of inflight hardware from a predominantly portable IFE supplier; a big sale for one fiber-optic IFE provider; two new seat power boxes; a 65” LCD Display; and so much more.

There is a big deal underway in IFE gatelink data that promises to expand ground-based IFE/airplane data that may finally automate that last node on the airline networks – the aircraft. It may do so by the build-up of ground-based networking…not in-flight connectivity. This offering looks like another SITA or ARINC and may incorporate their efforts as well. We will report on this project in the upcoming weeks.

iPad, iPad, iPad is all we heard about. No less that 8 vendors at the Hamburg Show had them in their booth. One even professed that it will be used as an inflight IFE offering. We do not know how it will ever pass DO-160 specifications so that rules out an imbedded application, but hope springs eternal. Additionally, the unit still stumbles with the lack of file handling capabilities and multitasking…not to mention security issues around file encryption. One rumor on the floor placed a major movie distributer in the booth of one vendor claiming they must print a retraction to an earlier news release claiming iPad first run movies? You can believe what you may but you heard it here first.

On the road, we wanted to give a tip-of-the-hat to Seattle Tacoma International Airport for their much appreciated, free Wi-Fi offered to all travelers. In an interview, the airport claimed that it costs them easily over $100,000 each year given the fees and royalties paid by service providers. Airports are not friendly places any more, but the folks at SeaTac deserve mention.

We hear Alaska Airlines will be offering introductory free Go-go Wi-Fi service till July 31, this year.

While air travel to and from the Hamburg show was nothing short of madness, thanks to the Icelandic volcano, we worry about the long-term impact on European air travel and airlines. Having experienced the absolute breakdown of one airline’s ability to manage the emergency we wonder if there are any management solutions to random weather emergencies? One thing for sure, it is going to cost us all more to fly!