SriLankan Airlines wins ‘Innovation in Commercial Airline Cabins’ at In-flight Asia Pacific Awards

SriLankan Airlines added yet another prestigious award to its impressive list of recent global airline industry accolades when it won the ‘Innovation in Commercial Airline Cabins’ award at the In-flight Asia Pacific Awards in Singapore on 1 November.

SriLankan Chief Commercial Officer Siva Ramachandra said: “We are delighted to win this award, which recognises excellence in innovation of passenger cabins. This award is an extremely valuable one since the highlighted cabin/seat design was developed using our in house talents.”

The nominated cabin design highly impressed the panel of judges comprised industry experts who are well versed with all of the aspects of aircraft cabins. The innovative features of SriLankan’s cabins included A330-300 Business Class flat-bed seats, A330-300 Economy Class seat fabric design and bulkhead designs inspired by the natural beauty of Sri Lanka. The Sinharaja rain forest, a world heritage site in Sri Lanka is home to endemic and endangered flora and fauna which are woven into the Economy seat fabric design in shades of blue and aquamarine.

The cabin ambience is further enhanced with the mood lighting, recreating a beautiful tropical sunrise, flowing from the back of the cabin to the front to wake up before breakfast is served. For evening flights we emulate a typical Sri Lankan “fairy sky” sunsets which transcends to sleep with the sparkling of stars in the night sky creating a unique passenger experience.

The ‘Innovation in Commercial Airline Cabins’ award was one of just seven that were presented at the Inflight Workshop, an open forum for lively debates on key topical issues in the areas of inflight entertainment, cabin technology and aircraft interiors, in Singapore on 1-2 November within the Inflight Pavilion of the MRO Asia-Pacific exhibition hall.

SriLankan Airlines was also shortlisted as a finalist in two other categories – ‘Inflight airline of the year’ and ‘Airline IFEC experience’. Other winners included Virgin Australia, Lufthansa Systems, Inmarsat, Singapore Airlines/Travelport Digital, Stellar Entertainment, and Spicejet/STG Aerospace.

The ‘Innovation in Commercial Airline Cabins’ award recognises recent revolutionary developments in cabin interiors of commercial aircraft. The category was open to manufacturers, suppliers and airlines operating in the Asia-Pacific region. Shortlisted finalists for this award included Cobalt Aerospace, Saudia and STG Aerospace

In-flight Asia Pacific Awards are presented by HMG Aerospace, a leading publisher, event organiser and intelligence provider serving the international aerospace community.

Last month, SriLankan Airlines received the prestigious Four Star Rating from the Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) in the first ever global airline industry rating programme based solely on passenger feedback. 

A member of the prestigious oneworld global airline alliance, SriLankan operates a route network of 106 cities from its hub in Colombo, with a fleet of modern aircraft that feature flatbeds in Business Class and sophisticated in-flight entertainment, in addition to its world class service famed for caring and warmth.

SriLankanhas won a large number of awards in recent times including ‘Best Full Service Airline In Central And South Asia’ for three consecutive years from 2015-17 at the Future Travel Experience Asia Awards in Singapore; ‘Leading International Airline’ and ‘Best in Class’ at the second annual South Asian Travel Awards 2017; ‘World’s Leading Airline Operating to the Indian Ocean Region’ at the World Travel Awards; ‘Best Full Service Airline in Central and South Asia’ for the second consecutive year at the Future Travel Experience Asia Awards; ‘Best International Airline – Asia’ at the Tamil Nadu Tourism Awards; and ‘Best Airline in South Asia’ at China’s Top Travel Awards.