Gregory Polek has spent his entire career in aviation journalism with AIN, starting as a proofreader and assistant to then-managing editor Mary Mahoney in 1995 after serving an internship with&nbsp;New Jersey Monthly&nbsp;magazine and completing his B.A. degree in English/Writing at New Jersey’s William Paterson College. By 1997 Polek accepted a position as an associate editor, covering the regional airline beat for&nbsp;Aviation International News&nbsp;in place of retiring industry veteran Don Anderson. The assignment took Polek across North America and Europe to profile regional airlines varying in size and mission from the likes of floatplane operators Kenmore Air and Chalk’s Ocean Airways to regional jet operators such as SkyWest and American Eagle. Today, in his dual role as Air Transport Editor and International Airshow Editor, Polek writes, edits, and manages AIN’s commercial aviation content while overseeing each of the company’s daily international air show publications in Paris, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai. Most recently Polek has assumed oversight of daily coverage of the Helicopter Association International’s annual Heli-Expo convention.

Senior Editor

Gregory Polek

A mockup of Airbus’s new cabin interior concept called Airspace formed the centerpiece of the company’s display at the April 5 to 7 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, Germany.&nbsp;Designed for the A330neo, the new interior will also appear on the A350 XWB, offering features that Airbus promises will deliver a more relaxing, attractive and functional environment for travelers and an optimal use of cabin space for operators.&nbsp;At the show, Airbus announced that TAP Air Portugal has agreed to serve as the launch customer for the A330neo and, therefore, the Airspace interior.

 


The concept embodies what Airbus calls four dimensions—comfort, ambience, service and design. Along with the 18-inch-wide seats found in today’s A330, the Airspace interior features newly styled and deeper overhead storage bins, allowing an increase in roller bag capacity of 66 percent. Another comfort feature centers on the cabin’s fourth-generation IFE system, whose electronics engineers managed to integrate more fully into the back of the seat, allowing for the removal of bulky boxes underneath.

 


The Airspace concept also incorporates Airbus’s Smartlavs, designed to give the occupant the same amount of useable space while decreasing the overall footprint of the lavatory, giving the airline more room to either increase seat pitch or add seats. Meanwhile, the new lavatories feature LED lighting, a softer, more rounded trim and finish and antibacterial surfaces. Other options include touchless flushing and taps, discreet aroma dispensers and choices of ambient sounds.

 


Other characteristics include a customizable welcome area at the main passenger boarding door, using LED mood lighting with 16.7 million possible colors, customizable 3D-printed ceiling patterns illuminated from behind and individualized ‘Gobo light’ patterns projected onto surfaces such as cabin walls and bulkheads.&nbsp;

 


Flexibility features include a range of new galley/lavatory options such as modular “Space-Flex” to maximize trolley capacity and wheelchair-accessible lavatory configurations to suit individual airline requirements. The innovations release extra space for greater passenger seat pitch and more recline for the seats in front of the "smart" lavatory monument, or allow the installation of up to 10 more seats at the same comfort standard.

 


Finally, Airbus has also relocated the flight crew rest area in the A330neo to what it calls the lower deck mobile crew rest area to free space on the main deck for additional passengers. New padding and mattress materials, enhanced lighting and an improved heating system also make for a more comfortable crew rest area, which can accommodate up to two separate bunks for pilots and six bunks for cabin crew.

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