From overhead bin space to toilet paper consumption, Airbus is watching you. Very closely.
Airbus has equipped one of its A350-900 aircraft with sensors throughout the cabin. These sensors track the onboard habits of passengers, collecting and analyzing data. The goal is to improve the passenger experience while saving airlines money.
With this new technology, for example, Airbus will track how many times the lavatory door is opened. After reaching a certain number, a message will be sent to onboard crew to check on soap or paper towel supplies. Overhead bin space will be tracked, with a goal to relieve “pressure points” that clog boarding and infuriate passenger. Even every instance of a seat recline will be tracked, with a goal of making more maintenance proactive rather than reactive. A seat that is reclined a certain number of times can be examined rather than waiting for it to break and losing revenue when that seat is out of service. Even in-flight food consumption will be tracked, with a goal of eliminating waste.
But’s not just sensors. Airbus plans to add cameras as well. These will be positioned outside lavatories. In the future, Airbus hopes to give seated passengers an idea of the current waiting time for a lavatory. Citing privacy concerns, Airbus says that faces will be blurred.
Speaking in Los Angeles, Ingo Wuggetzer, Airbus’ Vice President of Cabin Marketing, boasted, “It’s not a concept. It’s not a dream.” It’s also not on any commercial aircraft, at least at the moment. Airbus is testing the technology on one of its own aircraft, with hopes to offer it to airlines in the future.
CONCLUSION
Technology does have the capacity to improve the passenger experience while simultaneously reducing waste and cutting costs for airlines. But are you comfortable with a proliferation of cameras onboard aircraft and actively monitoring toilet paper consumption and seat recline?
The bathroom door camera idea sounds awful. How on earth will they know whether someone is just blowing their nose, or full on going to the bathroom, brushing teeth and changing clothes? It’s absurd. The rest sounds fine, re sensors but any time I hear “camera” on a plane I think it is a terrible idea.
Here’s my take on a lot of the “big brother” stuff.
I’m glad there are groups of people with a healthy dose of skepticism to keep companies somewhat honest in how they are using/sharing/selling the data they collect. But I don’t want that skepticism to turn into outright hostility towards technological advances. Data collection that improves my onboard experience is a good thing (imagine how many late flights could be avoided if flight attendants had up to the second accurate monitoring of overhead bins. That’s only one possibility.)
So I will support those who apply pressure for Airbus to be judicious in the use and anonymization of in-flight data so long as you don’t force them to shut the whole thing down.
@LaraS. Airbus isn’t using a camera to monitor the bathroom door, it’s a simple sensor that counts the number of times it’s opened. You’re also correct, they wouldn’t know what exactly is being used but it doesn’t have to spot on accurate, just directionally correct in order to let the cabin crew know when it’s about time to restock or clean up. It could also track the wear on the door hinge and the light inside, etc. It’s all about being proactive rather than reactive.
On a similar note, I was on a UA intl flight a few weeks ago where the FA’s were using their iPhones to take the meal orders. The Purser explained that by doing so they would be able to know which passengers get which entree in order of status without having to use paper and pen which was prone to lots of mistakes previously. They can also track which customers prefer which meals if you have a flight full of elites that all like steak, they would know to board extra steak, etc. Sounds awesome to me.
Bob, Airbus is installing sensors and cameras, not just sensors. The cameras will be outside lavs.
United’s FAs will soon all be using apps to take meal orders. I wrote about it here:
https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2019/08/06/united-meal-service-app/
I’m not fussed about this: much of it appears to make perfectly good sense. It’s far less intrusive than Google …they know every single detail about our private lives, including financial, health, relationships, shopping, media use, political opinions, travel preferences, family, pets, food, what we read. BY NAME and ADDRESS , including toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo by usage and brand. We’ve given them this information in return for chicken feed rebates.