Thales has won the Best Customer Journey Experience category of the Crystal Cabin Award, the leading global award for aircraft cabins and on-board products. Thales won with its suite of IFE accessibility solutions designed to enable more inclusive flying. Developed in collaboration with some of the world’s leading accessibility organisations, the advanced suite of accessibility solutions is designed to assist passengers who have visual and hearing impairments.
The main Crystal Cabin Award event takes place in Hamburg during the week of Aircraft Interiors Expo, but the special Best Customer Journey Experience category is held in conjunction with APEX/IFSA Expo in North America. The category includes all products that enrich the passenger experience throughout the entire travel process, whether hardware or software, from planning and booking, to the flight itself, to the post-landing phase.
This category complements the existing eight categories of the Crystal Cabin Awards, which are Accessibility, Cabin Concepts, Cabin Technologies, Health & Safety, IFEC & Digital Services, Passenger Comfort, Sustainable Cabin, and University. The winners are determined by a panel of 27 experts from various fields within civil aviation.
Thales’ Suite for Accessible IFE Solutions was deemed by the judging panel to represent a significant step toward inclusive flying. The features developed for passengers with special needs include a user-friendly interface with 13 intuitive gesture controls that mimic smartphone and tablet interactions, for familiar operation. A highlight is the industry’s first Signing Avatar, which complements subtitles and communicates in multiple languages using sign language.
Thales prevailed against two other finalists in the awards: Spafax and Skyted.
Spafax was in the running with its Connected Content Stream (CCS), developed in cooperation with Sportmonks. CCS enriches the passenger travel journey by seamlessly delivering tailored, highly relevant entertainment content that engages passengers at every step of their trip, from viewing content at home, to streaming content in the airport lounge, to enjoying inflight entertainment in the skies.
Spafax’s first-of-its-kind streaming experience allows passengers to stay connected for the entire duration of their journey via their own device, following a log-in via the wi-fi portal. Meanwhile, the low bandwidth of CCS addresses airline concerns over the high data costs associated with offering live content streaming. Passengers enjoy numerous benefits, with sports fans catered for with as up-to-the-minute sports updates can be delivered on board via a ‘live ticker’ function.
Meanwhile Skyted’s acoustic technology, developed in collaboration with the French Aerospace Lab (ONERA), with backing from organisations such as Airbus and the European Space Agency (EASA), enables users to enjoy crystal-clear conversations without external disturbances or the risk of being overheard. Skyted 320 and its control app offer features including compatibility with various communication platforms, AI-powered noise cancellation to eliminate ambient noise, and advanced voice amplification for clear communication even when whispering.
