Taiwan’s Starlux Airlines is on the cusp of a major shift in the carrier’s operations. It will take delivery of its first A350 this week, opening up long-haul markets from its home base in Taipei.
The delivery also represents a first for the Airbus A350, as the Starlux plane will be the first to offer electro-dimmable windows in the cabin.
Speaking at the APEX EXPO conference in Long Beach this week, Airbus’s VP Cabin Marketing Ingo Wuggetzer revealed this bit of interiors news, while saving the remaining details for Starlux to share. But the details on the new dimmable windows are impressive in their own right.
This is not a new technology, of course. Boeing has had it flying on the 787 Dreamliner for more than a decade. Business jets also fly with it on board. But Wuggetzer believes now is the time for Airbus to bring it to market, as it has matured significantly since the initial version.
Among the improvements, he cited an increased transition speed for the dimming, as well as the ability to block more of the light with the new system.
Still to be seen, however, is whether the flight attendants will lock out control of the windows. That can be a challenge in some cases.
More news from APEX EXPO 2022
- Panasonic Avionics, OneWeb team for inflight internet service
- Anuvu boosts Ka-band connectivity with dual panel antenna
- Virgin Australia picks 2Ku for Wi-Fi boost
- Dimmable windows coming to the A350 with Starlux
- Panasonic Avionics highlights Stellar Blu antenna for OneWeb LEO service
- A first look at Spirit’s new seats
- Bringing the moving map online: Panasonic’s Arc gets a data feed
- Pairing, casting and streaming: The next generation of inflight entertainment emerges
- Starlink/JSX STC slips
- SLAs suck: Seeking a service specification shift
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Good. Wish all airlines had this for that one Dbag who insists on shade up in Biz class during a US-Asia flight.