This year’s global health crisis and the introduction of social distancing represents a seminal moment for the future of aircraft interior design.

Temporary adjustments will need to be built upon in future design plans. And, future design plans need to align with changes to customer orders and passenger expectations.

For interior designers of business jets, the challenge is finding the balance between passenger health and business needs.

For example, distance measures will need to be incorporated into passenger seating to limit potential risks associated with the exchange of breath, but without taking away from the need to collaborate, hold meetings, and complete business activity.

Interior designers will need to be creative in finding the way to strike this balance. This will help the business jet community as everyone strives to restore confidence in aircraft travel.

3 Creative Ways to Adjust Aircraft Interior Design

Consider these creative ways to strike the balance between protecting personal health through social distancing and supporting business collaboration.

1. Incorporate Built-in Partitions

In everyday life, we have seen good and bad examples of businesses using partitioning to separate customers and guests while in a confined space. When applied to aircraft interior design, one idea is including built-in partitions between passenger seats.

This will require adjustments to interior design plans to include partitions that can be utilized during the flight. This way, passengers can safely create a pod-like environment separating themselves from the other passengers or retract the partition to have conversations, collaborate, and hold meetings.

The visual challenge of incorporating a retractable partition is to avoid interfering with the interior aesthetic. This will require careful customization to match the other design aspects of the aircraft interior to meet customer specs and passenger expectations.

2. Create More Separate Environments

A creative idea for aircraft interior designers is creating more separate spaces or designated areas throughout the aircraft.

Many business jets have an open-space concept where passengers can freely walk through the cabin to take a seat or talk to other passengers. This may need to be adjusted to create designated areas for general discussion, separate isolation areas for each passenger, and designated meeting areas.

Consider the parallel of today’s co-working spaces that are trendy in the business community. There are typically open desk areas, separate offices away from the general population, and designated conference areas.

This idea of creating designated spaces for each activity will help meet cleaning and sanitation needs to maintain a safe environment, while empowering passengers to understand their role in helping support a healthy environment.

3. Consider Moveable Seating

A primary challenge facing wide-body, passenger aircraft is what to do with the middle seat. The temporary solution during the health crisis has been to mark off this seat to support social distancing. Now, some companies are proposing plans to make the middle seat face a different direction.

When thinking about seating for business jets, interior designers have the opportunity to think through innovative seating arrangements to embed social distancing into the interior design.

Safety is obviously a concern if seating is not bolted down to the rail or track running along the aircraft floor. However, there is an opportunity to incorporate more flexible seating arrangements by reconfiguring the railing system to allow for certain seats to be moved.

Support for Aircraft Interior Design Changes

When incorporating social distancing measures into new aircraft interior designs, a key consideration is ensuring that all interior elements are carefully coordinated to optimize the passenger experience.

Fabrics, wood, carpeting, and metal pieces should be complementary to enhance the visual appeal and overall aesthetic.

HighTech Finishing integrates into the aircraft interior design process by custom color-matching metal pieces to the aircraft interior design. We provide high-quality decorative metal parts that fit perfectly into the aircraft interior.

Our expert team will deliver high-quality metal parts to the exact specifications of the order. As you work through new design plans in response to this year’s health crisis, we will work with you to complete each order on-time and of the highest quality.

Contact us today for custom metal finishes to complement any interior layout. Reach us toll-free at 800-949-0124 or email info@htf.net.