Special Report
Onboard with the ‘soft experience’ Jagdish Sihra, design management executive, British Airways
I have worked with British Airways for eleven years and I’m passionate about the soft experience on board, which I describe as everything that’s not
bolted down. I am a textile designer, trained at St Martins and Goldsmiths, and I have learned a lot from my time working with hotels where the small experiences – such as turndown – make all the difference. There are four of us working in Design
Management at BA and we are a small team with a huge remit. My own area of expertise is all soft design and I have delivered a variety of design projects over the years. With budgets being constrained as they are in today’s climate, we are required to work hard to come up with the best we can. I drove the design for BA’s FIRST cabin overhaul
soft product, along with the Customer Experience team, working on everything from accent crockery to the sprung mattress. In the rest of the cabin, the Thalys IFE is an all-new touch screen and the new cabin has just 14 seats with privacy, space and individual electric blinds. Each suite is designed to allow passengers to ‘work, sleep, eat and be entertained’ and the design and build was a £100 million investment overall. We are gradually introducing a cabin refresh
for all ‘soft’ items throughout the plane and have worked with John Horsfall on World Traveller and Traveller Plus and with Sue McClure, senior account manager at Watermark on the award- winning Anya Hindmarch FIRST amenity bag. In fact, we have been working with Anya for the last ten years. Within the bag we are using REN products, a very niche British skincare company. We do seek out British products and designers wherever possible but it’s becoming increasingly difficult with competition abroad. One of my most recent projects was the creation of an entirely new concept for our Club World London City service between London City Airport and New York’s JFK. With a new service
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www.onboardhospitality.com
on new aircraft, we were able to be exceptionally creative, even re-introducing new crew hats. For the first long haul Business-only flight
out of London City our brief was to design the most productive cabin environment ever; the ‘perfect office in the sky’. The project covered every aspect of the cabin interior from seat development to trim and finish, as well as amenities and service. To make sure the cabin was spacious and airy, almost like a private jet, we configured just 32 seats, meaning every passenger is by a window or an aisle. We made internet access standard, as well as the ability to send and receive text messages through OnAir. Lighting is mood adjustable and the seats recline to a fully-flat six- foot bed for the return flight. We chose a high-contrast seat trim of bronze, midnight blue and a gloss white shell with elegant herringbone fabric and stylish check graphics for the tableware. UK spa brand Elemis supplied amenities.
www.ba.com
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