The next generation of customers will likely prioritise wellness, personalisation, instant access and sustainability – how will the industry respond?
To mark Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX)’s 25th edition this year, Business Jet Interiors International collaborated with the event’s organisers for a virtual industry roundtable exploring the key innovations of the past 25 years and what the next quarter century might hold. The expert panel – Colin Carter, CEO of CineSend, Kevin Kucel, director of aircraft sales at Townsend Leather, Lauren Kenealy, marketing director at Tapis, and Eric Hoegen, director of group sales at AMAC Aerospace – had a lot to say.
Of course, any exploration of future trends must consider the next generation of customers. The panel agrees this cohort will reshape priorities around personalisation, wellness and sustainability.
“The whole generation is growing up with social media being channelled towards them,” says Kenealy. “They want a more functional aspect to their jet – a space to work out, healthy food to their preference. Health is really prioritised for these people.”
Kenealy also points out that increases in cabin size have opened the door to greater personalisation. “Now they have the bigger space, some people are more health-active, some people want spaces for their pets, and some people want certain applications in their cabin,” she says.
Hoegen notes AMAC Aerospace’s projects for clients in the Middle East hold examples of generational change already in action: “We have now 30-35-year-old heads of state versus 70-80-year-old kings in the past, and that has a big impact on design. We had segmented cabins, and now it’s about open-space cabins. Brown and gold colour schemes used to be popular, now the look is very different – really European contemporary.”
He also notes a shift in aircraft type. “The aircraft are getting smaller,” says Hoegen. “The son of the old ruler would prefer to use his G650 instead of the Boeing 747. This is a whole new generation that is much more mobile, much more connected, and less focused on status than in the past.”
In terms of connectivity and IFE trends, Carter of CineSend, a digital IFE distribution specialist, says that smartphones will be the passenger interface for every system onboard. He also says that hardware will be completely absent from the cabin, with IFE delivered through the cloud. “We’re already seeing this starting to happen in the commercial space – United, on a few of their narrow-body programmes, are offering cloud streaming where there is no hardware at all on board,” explains Carter. “You open the app and watch content directly from the cloud. I think a content cache on board will completely go away in 25 years as connectivity gets faster.”
AMAC Aerospace’s Hoegen confirms that being able to control cabin lighting, window shades and so on via smartphone app has become essential, and he expects that focus on software to continue. “You will always need PCUs or switch panels for certification reasons, but it will be controlled by your own device,” he says.
Other types of hardware will also persist for VVIP cabins, Hoegen says: “We will still see large monitors, and we’ve seen curved monitors now, especially on the upper part of the bulkhead panels, accommodating the shape of the fuselage. On the audio side, we are now installing 7.1 Dolby Atmos systems.”
Society’s growing focus on sustainability has pushed a rethink of materials over the past 25 years and is likely to be a continuing focus. Kenealy at Tapis describes a broad drive for lighter materials (cutting aircraft fuel burn), increased durability (for a longer service life), and the incorporation of more recyclable or renewable materials.
“We’ve started to look to more sustainable options, such as incorporating Tencel modal fibres, which are made from beech wood chips, and partnering with Reprieve and Ecovera to source recycled polyester from plastic water bottles,” says Kenealy. “Some avenues we’re taking now are using crustacean shells that could be ground up into certain formulations, and indigo dyes. While these are not airworthy yet, we’re continuing to look into materials that aren’t a finite resource.”
For Hoegen of AMAC Aerospace, removing weight from the cabin remains key. “We are now using new laminates and decorative films to bring down weight,” he says. “A couple of years ago there were a lot of reservations, but now films are starting to look good and are solid in application and operation.”
Meanwhile Kucel of Townsend Leather says the tanning industry is much cleaner now than it was 25 years ago – with advances including colour computers that limit finish usage, tightly regulated effluent treatment, wastewater systems, and improvements in coating technology that boost durability.
“Water-based systems were newer 25 years ago, but the technology keeps improving,” he says. “Sustainability wasn’t a primary consideration in the industry back then, but today it is nearly an everyday conversation. R&D is non-stop: improving on our manufacturing process, chemical usage and wastewater treatment.”
Capacity and lead times
While next-generation customers may be accustomed to instant access, the availability of completion slots is dependent on factors that are difficult to imagine disappearing. Demand for aircraft fluctuates, making it a high-risk business for completion centres with a lot staked on each project, and who must retain the staff and facilities needed to respond to demand.
“Quite a few completion centres went out of business over the past 10-15 years,” says Hoegen. “You’re bound to so many contractual parameters that if you’re not really successful, it’s a big risk. Airbus and Boeing are selling more aircraft again now, which is good for all of us, but there’s a lack of completion centres to take all these aircraft. This will have a knock-on effect on lead times and available slots.”
Supply chains and efficiency
Even with a slot secured, the completion process is still a very long process that Hoegen says is very difficult to compress. Part of this comes down to the supply chain, where the disruption of COVID-19 is still being felt. “The big OEMs all closed down completely for a long time, and lead times and prices have gone up dramatically,” says Hoegen. “We have seen increases of 25-30% on material, and some systems even much more – IFE systems are now much more expensive than they were before. We’re still suffering from it, because the supply chain never really came back into order. It’s difficult to explain to our customers that we need more time to do a VIP completion now than before COVID, but it’s the reality.”
However, the shift from AutoCAD to CATIA and the broader digitalisation of the engineering process have already delivered gains, and Hoegen expects that trend to continue. “Digitalisation is improving things just about everywhere,” he says.
AI can make inroads at the front-end design phase – compressing the cycles of rendering creation and design proposals – but Hoegen draws a firm line at engineering design: “AI will not develop an engineering drawing. It wouldn’t be allowed. When it comes to the translation from aesthetic design into engineering design, we need human substantiation.”
In fact, completions centres rely on diverse, specialised human skills that are in short supply. “It’s a niche prototyping industry,” says Hoegen. “You need a lot of know-how and real experts, and there are not so many of those around.”
Other applications for AI
The panel foresee many other potential uses for AI in the years ahead. For Carter, one immediate application is greater personalisation of IFE content delivery: “When you board the aircraft and connect, you’ll see recommendations that are relevant to you,” he says.
For Kucel, it has applications in R&D: “AI can’t tan leather, but it can give you some good direction,” he says. “We’ve found it very helpful in developing some 100% environmentally safe tanning formulas, and in trying to turn mycelium into leather.”
Kenealy sees forecasting as an extremely impactful application of AI to the supply chain. “As any supplier knows, forecasts are one of the best things you can get,” she says. “If AI could just tell a supplier what’s going to be needed by what date, we wouldn’t have that quick turnaround time request or sudden last-minute rush.”
Internally, the same capability can help suppliers decide what to hold in stock, reducing lead times and minimum order quantity pressures.
For further insights from the panel, watch the entire roundtable discussion.
This feature was written by Izzy Kington and first published in the July 2026 edition of Business Jet Interiors International. For the full feature, click here.
