British Airways Launches New Look Interiors

British Airways shorthaul seats. Photo © British Airways

British Airways recently unveiled newly-designed seats and cabin interiors for its short-haul aircraft flying across its European and domestic networks from Heathrow and Gatwick.

Fitting-out work is to begin soon on the first of the 95 Airbus short-haul aircraft (A320s), installing elegant new designs that take inspiration from the airline’s most recent fleet entrants, the A380 and Boeing 787.

The elegant charcoal grey leather seats are slimmer and ergonomically designed to enable the addition of extra seats in the Euro Traveller (economy) cabin to allow more low fares.

Photo © British Airways

Innovative design maximizes personal space and comfort, with chair backs devised to provide more knee space for the customer behind. Customers can also make use of an eye-level seatback tablet-holder (left photo), which can also provide storage for magazines.

The new Club Europe, featuring a silver British Airways speedmarque on the front wall, will maintain its 2:2 configuration with the middle seat free.

Contemporary LED lighting systems, inspired by the airline’s newest long-haul cabins, will include blue tones for boarding, a relaxing candlelit mood for dining and a restful gentle white for cruising and landing.

The new cabins will also deliver significant environmental benefits, saving an estimated five percent in CO2 per passenger/km, contributing toward the airline’s target of reducing net carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050.

Internet in the air

To enhance its short-haul services British Airways is in discussions with Inmarsat about leading Europe in a new era of broadband in the air. Starting with UK domestic routes they intend to roll-out Europe’s first ground-based 4G broadband network giving customers the Internet access they expect on the ground while in the air.