Ready to revolutionize aviation design? Get inspired by the 2024 Crystal Cabin Award and stay ahead of the latest developments in cabin excellence.
Get ready to be part of aviation history: The Crystal Cabin Award, the global beacon of brilliance in aircraft interior innovation, is back for 2024. Our mission? Fuel innovation, spark creativity, and elevate the passenger experience to new heights. From recently launched products to futuristic concepts, the Award entries showcase the future of aircraft cabins, helping to make air travel an unforgettable experience.
Applications for the Guest Category "Customer Journey Experience" have now closed. The category will be presented at the APEX Awards at APEX EXPO in Los Angeles on 30 October 2024.
Since its inception in 2007, this esteemed award celebrates exceptional cabin products and concepts, aiming to fuel innovation in passenger comfort. The award ceremony is hosted annually in Hamburg during Aircraft Interiors Expo, the world’s biggest trade show for the aircraft cabin. Now, in 2024, we're calling on innovators, dreamers, and pioneers to join us in pushing the boundaries of passenger comfort. Join the Crystal Cabin Award 2024 and let's revolutionize air travel together!
From high-tech cabin systems to sustainable products, from next-generation connectivity solutions to inspiring blue-sky concepts: the Crystal Cabin Award spans eight categories, each rewarding a different area of innovation. Find out more below!
Awarded at APEX EXPO in October 2024, the "Best Customer JourneyExperience" category includes products that enrich and improve thepassenger experience with hardware or software solutions throughout the entireflight journey – including planning and booking journeys, boarding theaircraft, ordering products on board or accompanying the passenger afterlanding. Entries can be aimed at passengers, airlines, manufacturers and/orsuppliers. The aim of this category is to provide inspiring examples of how newservice products can be developed for a personalised passenger experience.
This category provides room for college and university students to present their visions for innovative products and concepts for aircraft interiors. It should reflect the idea of making flying more comfortable, smart or ecological. Blue-sky thinking is encouraged but focus must also be on certificability, practicality and economics. By submitting an application in this category students benefit from gaining important contacts within the industry regarding their professional future.
Aviation has made a commitment to become a zero-emission industry within the next 30 years. This challenge will require a great amount of thought and innovation to be invested into every aspect of aviation, including the cabin and the passenger experience. Aside from the industry commitment, customers are becoming more sensitive for sustainability issues in travel as well, requiring operators to take action. The Crystal Cabin Award Association responds to this development with the Sustainable Cabin category, where we look for entries that can prove their significant impact on the ecological impact of aviation, and contribute to the ultimate transformation of air travel toward a zero-emission industry.
Travelling comfortably is an important business factor for airlines. Entries in this category must specifically demonstrate how they improve passenger comfort within the cabin. An innovation that is of general use to a large group of individuals may well achieve higher marks due to its increased effectiveness for the airline´s success. This category includes e.g. seats, lavatories, bins, partitions, lighting solutions, linings, premium, business, first class products, VIP products etc. For products with a benefit more towards improved operations and performance, please also see categories like Cabin Systems.
This category recognizes innovations that enhance accessibility withinthe aircraft cabin, ensuring a more inclusive and comfortable experience forall passengers, including those with disabilities or limited mobility. Entriesmay include improvements in seating, lavatories, cabin layout, assistive technologies,and other design elements that remove barriers and provide greater ease ofaccess and use. The focus will be on solutions that integrate seamlessly intothe cabin environment while significantly improving the accessibility andoverall passenger experience.
This category comprises the fast-growing range of digital products and services in the aviation industry. Entries will need to prove their technological superiority against competing products and may include inflight entertainment solutions, connectivity elements such as antennas and wi-fi, customer-centered concepts like passenger apps, and even entire software solutions that create a smart & connected cabin.
This category comprises all cabin related concepts and products that visibly demonstrate that they a) minimize security problems, b) safety hazards, c) onboard health and hygiene issues, and/or d) significantly improve physical well-being in the aircraft. Depending on the field of application, entries may focus on passengers, crew or cargo.
This category focuses on the development of new materials, new materialapplications, or new combinations of materials specifically for aircraft cabinsystems to reduce production costs, enhance usability and recycling ability. Itencompasses a wide range of different aircraft components, including but notlimited to new seat structures, galleys, lavatories, trolleys, airconditioning, electrical systems, waste and potable water systems, acoustics,and more. Entries can include an innovative single technical component,material, or product that offers significant benefits to airlines. However,this category does not include fully developed products like seats, digitalsystems such as the "smart cabin" (see IFEC & Digital Services),or solutions specifically focused on passenger comfort (see Passenger Comfort).
This category highlights aircraft cabin concepts thatshowcase significant innovation, whether fully implemented or still in thevisionary stage. Entries can include entire cabins or specific sections such asfirst class, business class, or economy, and may be submitted by airlines,aircraft and cabin manufacturers, design companies, and MROs. The focus is onconcepts that differentiate themselves from existing cabin designs throughinnovative technical solutions, ergonomic improvements, and aestheticenhancements, while also addressing future challenges in air transport, such asthe limitations of current technologies and sustainability concerns. Thiscategory embraces both already-implemented cabins and forward-looking engineeringconcepts or design studies that envision the aircraft cabins of tomorrow.
Do I meet the criteria for entry? Who are the judges? When will the winners be announced? Check out the most frequently asked questions around the Crystal Cabin Award
Any corporation, airline, scientist, university, institution or individual natural person related with the civil aviation industry or airports may present an entry to participate in the Crystal Cabin Award.
The administration fee for the Crystal Cabin Award competition amounts to 380.00 € for every single entry (plus 19% VAT according to the legislation of the German Government for applicants based in Germany or for applicants based in the EU, who do not provide a VAT number within the application form). This fee may be paid by the applicant within 14 days from the date of filing, otherwise the entry will not enter the pre-selection process and will therefore not be accepted for the competition. In case your entry will not be accepted by the CCA pre-selection committee, the Crystal Cabin Award Association will refund all costs of the application fee except for the examination fee of 100,00 € (except the remittance costs). The amount of 100,00 € remains with the Crystal Cabin Award Association as examination fee for the pre-selection process. The remittance fee will be completely covered by the applicant. The same policy applies if you choose to withdraw your submission voluntarily. Student entries will not be charged in case the student ID of the current year is provided. Expenses resulting out of the award process have to be paid by the participants. In case you would like to benefit from the Early Bird rate, please make sure you submit your application and payment rate of 280.00 € (plus 19% VAT according to the legislation of the German Government for applicants based in Germany or for applicants based in the EU, who do not provide a VAT number within the application form) until Oct 04, 2024.
Only civil aviation products or concepts are allowed to be entered for the Crystal Cabin Award.
An entry has to fulfil the general criteria of the category to which it has been entered. To be accepted for short-list the entry will have to be of the highest-standard as defined by the competition rules.
There are currently eight categories at the Crystal Cabin Award, which are: Accessibility, Cabin Concepts, Cabin Technologies, Health & Safety, IFEC & Digital Services, Passenger Comfort, Sustainable Cabin, University. Each category will be evaluated separately.
Members of the Crystal Cabin Award Association and experts from the Judging Panel may not participate in the competition. Companies associated with members of the Judging Panel may participate in the competition. However their associate will not be allowed to vote for their product, to make sure the scoring is completely neutral and unaffected by company loyalties.