Internationalt samarbejdsprojekt for optimering af luftfart: E-Cab

06-03-09. E-Cab står for: "E-enabled Cabin and Associated Logistics for Improved Passenger Services and Operational Efficiency".

Projektet er gennemført i samarbejde med bl.a. Airbus og førende leverandører til luftfartsindustrien.

Læs mere om projektet

E-Cab
E-enabled Cabin and Associated Logistics for Improved Passenger Services and Operational Efficiency
 

Background
Travel has improved much in the last 100 years, from being an adventure to the height of the ‘golden age’, when the mere ability to travel accorded a person significant privilege. Back then, access to the aircraft was assured and once onboard, the facilities and service were very much representative of what would have been available in other situations to which the traveller would have been exposed.

Since then, there has been much diversification in travelling, with the development of many classes of travel in order to offer a wide choice of services for the passengers to select the overall travel quality experience that suited their means and their aspirations.

However, the ever-growing volume of passengers and the high complexity of airports have dramatically increased, to the point where travel quality is being considerably affected by the process prior to aircraft access. Thus, for ensuring seamless logistic processes that keeps the traveller contented, the entire flying experience is to be redesigned, covering the whole end-to-end process from start to finish.

Objectives
The E-Cab project will provide answers to the identified issues by improving the end-to-end-travel processes in a holistic approach. The objectives for this are threefold:

• To increase passenger choice with regard to travel costs, time to destination, onboard services and comfort. This will be provided by a more convenient boarding/deplaning of passengers and by offering onboard office and home-like functionalities, which shall be adaptable to passengers’ individual preferences and making use of the most advanced information and communication technologies available.
• To reduce the aircraft’s direct operating costs in order to improve the airline’s competitiveness. This will encompass e-enabled optimised ground handling for a reduction in aircraft turnaround time, e-enabled mission adaptive cabins for a simplified cabin reconfiguration during operation, and cabin crew workload reduction through effective cabin e-management tools using air-to-ground communications.
• To reduce aircraft development costs in order to enable the European aircraft industry to build cost-efficiently operable and easy customisable aircraft. This shall be achieved by modular and flexible system architectures, by introducing innovative wireless concepts for in-flight entertainment (IFE) and cabin/cargo management, leading to reduced aircraft manufacturing and customisation costs.