As Jonny Clark, The DesignAir, highlights in this excellent feature on the Royal Jordanian 787 Dreamliner, Royal Jordanian has made the most of the sense of space which can be built into a new cabin, both vertically and horizontally. Important too is the lack of visual clutter, helped along by the neutral tones. I’m fascinated by the decision to scatter a pattern of red seats in the Economy cabin. Besides giving the otherwise neutral cabin nice burst of colour, it draws the eyes in an irregular pattern, breaking up what would otherwise be a monotony of uniform seat rows. Uniform monochrome seat rows have the negative impact of emphasising the number of seats in the cabin, generating a sense of crowded conditions. Royal Jordanian has also given more physical space to the Economy cabin, but this clever design strategy could work equally well with more compressed cabin conditions.
Designers recently shared with Flight Chic for a special cabin trends report published by Skift, said passengers’ sense of space is as dependent on the visual aspects of the cabin as by physical constraints of seat pitch and width. One designer mentioned that the sense of space generated by the Dreamliner cabin configuration even made passengers believe that they were sitting in roomier seats, though the seats were identical to those on other aircraft.
The biggest takeaway is that our sense of space in the cabin depends on many factors, not the seat alone. Clever designers and airlines inspired to follow their good advice, can really make any cabin feel better in a variety of ways.
Of course, it helps that the Dreamliner has so many standard design features to enhance well being: larger windows, cabin humidity and pressurisation controls, noise reduction, etc.
Kudos to Royal Jordanian for this refreshing elegant cabin design!