Facing forward on aircraft...

Following the injuries (and deaths) caused by the Asiana plane crash in San Francisco, an aviation expert has announced that rear-facing passenger seats would be safer on aircraft. Yet every airline has known this for years, even decades.

What they also know is that passengers prefer to sit facing forwards. This was one of the issues confronting British Airways when they introduced the herring-bone flat-bed configuration in Club World, where half the seats face towards the rear. In the end they decided to try it out on the North Atlantic routes – with tremendous success and customer acceptance.

So why is it that every major airline in the world still makes us face forwards, restrained only by a belt across the lap, when we could all be flying, much more safely, on seats anchored to the floor, fully supporting us in the event of problems?

Time for a radical re-think. 

British Airways and the food and drink kart

There are moments to treasure in innovation workshops – and this was one for me.

I was in Dubai, working with a large group of British Airways people from around the world, together with some Club World customers. We were in the process of brainstorming ways in which BA could transform that part of the airplane, giving itself a real competitive advantage. (See blogpost 16 March 2012, “How long haul business class was transformed”, http://rogerneill.blogspot.co.uk/2012_03_01_archive.html )

Somehow or other, in mid-flow, there emerged a group whine about the food and drink kart. “It’s absolutely awful… it takes up the whole aisle… it looks awful… it’s hard to handle… and if you want to go to the bathroom while it’s there ‒ no chance.”

This seemed to go rolling on, one criticism following another in an apparently endless stream.

Then I noticed that a hand went up at the back, rather tentatively at first, then a little more assertively. “Yes, Fred.” Shamefully I forget his real name. “What would you like to add?”

“Well,” said Fred, “me and my team designed that kart twenty five years ago. It’s really just a box with a lot of shelves. And people have complained about it ever since. But no one seems to have found a way to improve on it.”

There was a hush around the room as everyone took this in. It seemed to me that people had realised that here was a man who, with his team, had created a genuine innovation, what’s more one that had stood the test of time. There was a slight but definite sense of shame about all that whinging.

And then, slowly, the applause started. They all stood up and applauded.

Quite right too!

How long haul business class was transformed

In the 1990s, there was a battle royal between airlines over long-haul business class.

In fact, the competitive situation seemed to me to be like angels being danced on the head of a pin, so slender were the real differences between the various players. One would offer a 45 degree seat recline, another an extra four inches of legroom, while a third would offer bone china crockery.

But in practical terms they were all so close together that customers bought primarily on price. Everyone was losing money.

So British Airways set up a big innovation workshop. People from every part of the airline plus several regular long-haul business class passengers. Some sixty of us in all. I designed and facilitated the workshop for them – in Dubai – and people flew in for it from around the globe.

Mostly on day one we brainstormed possible wishes for improvement. I was astonished by the services that business class passengers might wish for: massage my feet, cool my brow, peel me a grape, champagne intravenously and so on and so on.

Then, towards the end of the day, quite quietly, one of the passenger participants said: “You know, I’d trade all that, every bit of it, for a decent night’s sleep.” And what that meant, to him, was to have a flat bed, just like the folks in First Class.

It was as though the clouds had parted. Here was a genuine difference. After all, the majority of long-haul flights are overnight ones.

But identifying the breakthrough insight was just the beginning. BA then had to work out how to deliver the new benefit without sacrificing half the passenger density. And this they did using their “herringbone” layout.

Altogether it transformed BA’s long-haul business class – Club World as it’s branded – in terms of reputation, share, sales, price-point and profitability.

And for some reason or other, their competitors failed to respond for several years. But that’s another story.