Attention, aviation enthusiasts, flight aficionados, and travel connoisseurs!

Flygreen is beyond thrilled to bring you the news from the sky-high gala that recently wrapped up. The Crystal Cabin Awards of 2023 have been announced, celebrating the most innovative and exciting advances in aircraft cabin technology. The event, known as the “Oscars of the Aviation Industry”, recognizes pioneering achievements that are set to shape the future of flying, and this year was no exception.

Without further ado, let’s dive into the winners who dared to redefine the aviation industry in 2023:

1. Cabin Concepts: Air New Zealand “Skynest”: The Crystal Cabin Award for Cabin Concepts requires breakthrough innovation enhancing passenger experience. Air New Zealand’s winning entry, Skynest, introduces a novel feature for economy travelers: four-hour lie-in bunks on the airline’s longest flights. These pods offer amenities like full bedding, ear plugs, reading light, USB outlet, ventilation, and rest-oriented lighting. Skynest will be available from 2024 on ultra-long haul routes to North America, including Chicago and New York.
2. Cabin Systems, Materials and Components: Thales Avionics “Onboard Data Center”: Thales Avionics won with their Onboard Data Center (ODC), an IT architecture for passenger aircraft employing “blades” for shared storage and computing. The system, impressive for its web-based technologies with ten times the capacity of current IFE servers, wowed the jury. ODC’s modularity and future upgradeability through swappable blades also significantly contributed to their win.
3. Health & Safety: Teledyne Controls “ACES”: Teledyne Systems’ ACES, a cabin air quality monitoring system, won the 2023 award for enhancing in-flight safety and wellbeing. The system tracks various parameters in real-time and sends data directly to ground stations, utilizing lab-grade sensors to monitor airborne particles and gasses. The jury praised ACES for its dual advantage of improving air quality insight and reducing maintenance costs and downtime by enabling onboard repair validation without extra sensor systems.
4. Passenger Comfort: Collins Aerospace “Intelisence”:
   Collins Aerospace’s Intelisence utilizes AI to analyze data from cameras and sensors to predict passengers’ ideal travel experience. The jury appreciated the system’s multiple benefits, including anticipating passenger needs for seamless service, enabling efficient resource planning to reduce waste, and collating passenger data in a user-friendly way that eases cabin crew workload, benefiting both crew and passengers.
5. IFEC and Digital Services: AirFi, coop. Iridium “LEO Connectivity Solution”: The 2023 submissions highlighted the rising trend of in-flight connectivity, aiming to mirror ground-based internet services. AirFi and Iridium’s LEO Connectivity Solution impressed the jury by connecting to the Iridium Certus system via a cost-effective, pen-sized antenna in the window frame, unnoticeable to passengers. This system boosts connectivity for passengers and crew, enabling messaging services for passengers and ACARS transmissions or credit card validation for the crew.
6. Sustainable Cabin: Lantal Textiles “Deep Dyed Carpet”:
   The aircraft interiors industry is increasingly prioritizing environmental impact, as shown by the 2022 introduction of the Sustainable Cabin category. This year, Lantal Textiles’ Deep Dyed Carpet won, demonstrating potential to reduce environmental impact in several ways, including saving 60% of water and 80% of waste during production and reducing aircraft weight and CO2 emissions. Moreover, the ultra-lightweight, visually customizable carpet, made using a new digital deep dyeing technology, won the 2023 Crystal Cabin Award.
7.  University: Technical University of Delft “Lightweight Aircraft Seating”:
   The University category of the Crystal Cabin Awards encourages innovative designs created by students. This year, a team from the Technical University of Delft won for their Lightweight Aircraft Seating. The seat cushions, 3D-printed using sustainable fibers, decrease material usage, provide optimal body support, and reduce both seat and aircraft weight.

From sustainability to comfort to connectivity, this year’s Crystal Cabin Awards showcased incredible innovations that will revolutionize the way we fly. As always, the awards underlined the unwavering spirit of creativity, the relentless pursuit of excellence, and the ambition to make air travel more enjoyable, sustainable, and efficient.

Flygreen congratulates all the winners and participants for their wonderful contributions!