A UK-based consortium has created a cabin concept that allows wheelchair users to use their own chair when flying on airlines.
Air 4
UK-based consortium Air 4 All has partnered with Delta Flight Products to create a cabin concept that allows wheelchair users to fly in their own chairs.
The design involves removing the back cushion and flipping up the seat to accommodate a wheelchair.
A working prototype with make its debut at the Aircraft Interiors Expo on June 6 but the seat still needs to be certified and tested.
Delta Air Lines subsidiary Delta Flight Products has teamed up with UK-based consortium Air 4 All to introduce a new cabin seat option for wheelchair users.
Currently, powered wheelchair users have to use an airline-provided wheelchair when traversing airports and boarding aircraft. After being transferred from chair to chair and rolled down the jetbridge, they will be transferred one more time into a seat.
Because of the risks, Delta and Air 4 All want to squash the current practice with a product that would allow passengers with reduced mobility (PRM) to stay in their chairs for the entire curb-to-curb journey.
A working prototype will be officially debuted at the Aircraft Interiors Expo on June 6, but the seat still would need to be certified and tested before making its way to a plane cabin. Take a look at the design.
Air 4 All is made up of British design studio PriestmanGoode, consultancy Flying Disabled, wheelchair manufacturer Sunrise Medical, and cabin certification company SWS Certification…
The company says the design does not eliminate seat perks and will still offer passengers access to a headrest, center console tray tables, and a cocktail table.
"Offering equal access to comfort, safety, and dignity for all passengers has always been our objective for Air 4 All," PriestmanGoode director Daniel MacInnes said in a press release.
The design — which was shortlisted for the 2022 Crystal Cabin Awards — is also multi-purpose. According to Air 4 All, it can be used by a non-wheelchair user if there is not a PRM traveler onboard.
Flying Disabled founder Chris Wood explained in 2021 that "the biggest barrier in the past has been that giving greater space to passengers in wheelchairs would have reduced seat count and resulted in a loss of revenue for airlines."
"Air 4 All will facilitate a smoother boarding and disembarking experience for PRMs and will also significantly reduce the number of wheelchairs that are damaged through poor handling," Wood said.
The company hopes the seat will be well-received by the disabled community, who have actively been telling their stories about airlines destroying their mobility devices.
Writer Allegra Keys (pictured) modeled in an adaptive fashion show at New York Fashion Week. On her Alaska Airlines flight to the event, her wheelchair was severely damaged.
"If you treat the wheelchair as an extension of a person, there's no way it would be destroyed," Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) — who uses a wheelchair — told Insider in 2021.
