All Nippon Airways wants to consign the intercom in history books with a sartorial technology

A few months ago, the Japanese company All Nippon Airways (ANA) became the last airline in the world to receive its first Airbus A380. ANA currently has two double-decker superjumbos and a third is expected to be delivered next year – the airline has all committed to exploit the popular holiday itinerary connecting Tokyo to Honolulu, with a special "Flying Honu" livery adorning each of them. them.

As the last commercial customer of the A830, the airline has learned from other operators and introduced a number of changes in terms of gaining space and pbadenger experience. One of the challenges that ANA is tackling is how to ensure effective communication between as many cabin crew members on two levels.

After all, any member of the crew who worked on an A380 can tell you that it is perfectly possible to complete a trip without even recognizing half of the crew coming off the plane. However, while all commercial aircraft have interphones for quick and easy communication between cabin crew (and flight crews), ANA has decided that this is not the most efficient solution for an aircraft of this type. size with a crew as important.

Instead, ANA banned the interphone from the history books of its A380 fleet and instead invested in a wireless in-ear communication device manufactured by BONX, a Tokyo-based company. The device combines a built-in microphone and headphones and is controlled by a bespoke smartphone app that allows flight attendants to talk to each other instantly, wherever they are in the plane.

"By facilitating communication between flight attendants, they will be better equipped to meet the needs of pbadengers," says Akihiko Miura, Executive Vice President of ANA.

"These wearable devices are just one of the important tools tested by ANA. We look forward to exploiting the latest technological advances to enhance every aspect of the travel experience. "

ANA cites the increased number of personnel needed to operate an A380 because the BONX system is tested on these flights. The airline wants the wireless technology to replace the intercom, although the A380s delivered to ANA still have wired intercoms as a fallback solution.

It is not known if ANA plans to deploy this initiative in smaller aircraft, but there are clearly many examples of use, even on single-aisle aircraft. ANA is actively reviewing the comments of the crew and pbadengers to determine next steps.

Not that ANA is the first airline to experiment with wearable technology. In 2014, Virgin Atlantic conducted a high-profile but very short-lived test of Google Glbad devices to help ground agents provide a more personalized service to premium pbadengers.

And in 2017, Air New Zealand talked about the benefits of HoloLens – a Google Glbad-like device developed by Microsoft that uses AI to consolidate and display key customer information on a display in flight attendant view. Air New Zealand said that one of the potential benefits of the system would be to help the airline go paperless, even though HoleLens has not been deployed on a large scale.