The 14th Crystal Cabin Awards were presented in Hamburg on March 30th. In a digital ceremony, streamed live around the world, high-ranking industry representatives honored the 24 finalists and their concepts in their addresses as they presented the prizes.
With a broad spectrum of innovation and engagement with current challenges, the winners of the coveted white trophies make it clear that the aviation industry is not standing still despite the current crisis.
Illustrating what the future of the cabin might look like, ‘Alice’ won in the “Cabin Concepts” category. The first purely electric commuter jet, from Israeli company Eviation Aircraft, made its debut at the Paris Airshow in 2019. It will carry nine passengers over a distance of up to 1000 kilometers. The plane’s innovative cabin concept with a fishbone seating layout, created by Almadesign of Portugal, won the trophy, presented by Polly Magraw, Event Director at Reed Exhibitions, organizer of the Aircraft Interiors Expo.
The eight winners of the 2021 trophies included Airbus, Diehl Aviation, e2ip, Eviation with Almadesign, and the University of Cincinnati for cabin innovations and on-board products, while Safran took out three prizes at once.
All finalists were required to present their entries to the international Crystal Cabin Award jury in a final round, which for the first time was conducted virtually. For entrants in the “University” category, the University of Cincinnati won with its Coffee House Cabin, a long table for meetings, productive work and coffee breaks, having already made it to the final in 2019.
In 2021, in view of the global Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on global air travel, there will be two special categories for the Crystal Cabin Award: “Clean & Safe Air Travel” and the “Judges’ Choice Award”. They are scheduled for presentation at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg on 31 August.
