Innovation & Design Awards | Aviation Aviation ‘When times ae tough, altines have to try that tiuch harder to lure customers into theirlownges and their planes, Tat means tempting them with Dew an diferent experiences, ld's Ki tiie bas hired Prlestman Goode the interior ofits As atures left beds anda bar tis the hotel says Christopher Frying and lots of firms are doing it~ hence the fllykited-ontst-las Shower rooms on Emirates’ JFK-bound A380 ‘Gantas has also gone down the designer rote, hiring Mare Newson as creative dieeto. He has pondered athowsand tiny detail inside the Ag80 rom erockery to footrest and borrowed technology developed for Formula to make the 24 Condé Nast Traveller 1&D Awards May 2009 ats in economy slimmer, and so provide more legroom, Air New Zealand is showing alittle [kindness tothe masses at the back with ts premium ‘economy class, which is ‘than “economy-plus"; says Simon Calder. Another way of doing busines lightly is to fly ina smaller airerat. One spectacular innovation, the Aerion ‘Mach 16, I'like having Concorde all to yourself, ‘and it won't set you back more than £80 million, ‘The Blink Air Taxi Service, just coming to Europe, is more demotie but no less exciting It wl feature a flet of fou ‘Mustangs fly ster Cessna Citation ng to 600 destinations, with face Fly me to the moon: Norman eee ec) Pere ad on seating that makes each plane what Blink likes to call ‘a boardroom in the sky’ ‘Some of the latest concepts provide a glimpse of the industry's future, BA's clever iPhone application for flight updates, for example, is sure to catch on, The new-generation Boeing, ‘787 Dreamliner is nearly here: almost goo are on oder, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways has ordered & th of Boeing and Airbus aieraft, and looks set to be a huge noise inthe skies over the next decade, And just around the comer is Norman Foster's utterly cosmic New ‘Mexico Spaceport Authority Building, There's no telling where you will ly to from there, but you know thats a plane you don't w 3-billion wi ito miss