We’ve almost forgotten what boarding a plane and flying to a destination feels like, thanks to 2020 and the ever-pressing need to avoid crowded spaces and to social-distance. One-percenters haven’t, because they can always fly private.
First-class passengers were equally affected by the ongoing health crisis and perhaps likewise forced to search for alternative means of transport. With the Air Lair seating, they probably wouldn’t have to.
Air Lair is a concept from Factorydesign London that dates back to 2012 and is seeing a resurgence these days, given the need to create privacy bubbles on board passenger aircraft. The idea is that you could make cocoon-style seats for passengers in First Class by stacking them in a honeycomb structure.
As you can see in the video at the bottom of the page, Air Lair would allow for the creation of customizable personal space inside the cocoon, including ambient lights, an extendable seat that would convert into a bed, screens, and connectivity. Peter Tennent, director of Factorydesign, tells The Robb Report in a recent interview that the advances of tech since the official unveil of Air Lair would even allow for setting different temperatures in each pod, among other things. They could also add screens and doors for even more privacy, but not seal the pod off completely.
According to the Factorydesign, using Air Lair seating would lead to a 30 percent increase in the number of passengers within the same space. This would mean packing more people in, and it’s probably not the kind of thing anyone wants to hear right now, all things considered.
As for how flying in this cocoon would feel like, Tennent compares the experience of getting in and out of the pod to that of getting into a Ferrari or a tall 4x4, depending on whether the pod is on the first or second level. He imagines a future in which, after being used in First Class, this seating model would be adopted in the other airline classes – now renamed and repurposed as work zones, family zones, single traveling, and luxury cabins.
“The idea of cocooning was built around the principle that every passenger would get their own pod,” he explains. “The stacked nature of the concept requires a ceiling within each pod and that, combined with the additional furniture around the passenger, provides a heightened sense of being cocooned.”
Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends. Full profile
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