Trending Cabin Lighting Systems

Lighting sets the tone for the ambiance, look, and feel of the aircraft cabin, and aircraft manufacturers want them to provide the best in-flight passenger experience. This is being accomplished by highlighting elements of the cabin design and changing the cabin ambience, all while being a critical part of cabin safety for passenger evacuation.

According to a recent Allied Market Research report titled, “Aircraft Cabin Lighting Market by Type and Aircraft Type: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026,” the global aircraft cabin lighting market size was valued at $1,167.50 million in 2018 and is projected to reach $1,740 million by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 5.2% from 2019 to 2026. What follows are current cabin lighting system trends and developments.

Latest Developments

Louis Verdu, sales manager at Bigorre Aerospace, Pinellas Park, Florida, explains that cabin lighting systems have evolved significantly over the years. He believes new features, options, and technologies provide a more comfortable, relaxing, and personalized environment, while also helping airlines and aircraft operators reduce operational costs and improve safety and hygiene standards. He cites some of the latest developments in cabin lighting systems as:

Adjustable color temperature. Many modern cabin lighting systems allow passengers to adjust the color temperature of the lights, which can help reduce jet lag and improve sleep quality. Warm color temperatures can help passengers relax and sleep, while cooler temperatures can help them stay awake and alert.

Dynamic lighting. Dynamic lighting systems allow aircraft operators to create different lighting scenes throughout the flight, from boarding to take-off, in-flight meal service, and landing. Dynamic lighting can create a more relaxing and comfortable environment, helping passengers feel more refreshed upon arrival.

Personalization. Personalization options allow passengers to tailor their lighting environment to their preferences, with the ability to adjust the brightness, color, and position of their individual overhead light.

Motion-activated lighting. Motion-activated lighting is an energy-efficient feature that can reduce the overall energy consumption of the aircraft. The lights turn on automatically when a passenger enters the lavatory or the aisle, and they turn off when the passenger leaves, saving energy and reducing maintenance costs.

Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) lighting. Ultraviolet-C (UV-C) lighting is a new technology that can help disinfect surfaces and the air in the cabin. By using UV-C lighting, aircraft operators can reduce the risk of transmission of airborne diseases and improve the overall cleanliness of the cabin.

The Full Capability of Addressable Lighting

Pierre Michard, sales and programmes director at STG Aerospace, Cardiff, U.K., believes that for commercial aviation, “Most airlines are only now starting to use the full capability of addressable lighting. Some innovative carriers are rolling this out as a key unique selling point, such as Azores Airlines. Having a seamless holistic cabin experience requires all hardware to be integrated with the cabin management systems.” He cites the following points as examples of how this is happening.

Instagrammable passenger experience. Lighting is one of the easiest ways to make the passenger experience memorable. Airlines need their customers to remember who they are flying with in a world of flight price comparison websites. [This includes] high-quality white for Ultra Low-Cost carriers all the way to special choreographed dynamic lighting experiences for Skytrax 5-star carriers.

Fleet harmony. Maintaining a consistent passenger experience, fleet-wide, can be a challenge for airlines. Cabin lighting is a simple and cost-effective way of enhancing the cabin ambience to the same or better-quality standard as brand-new aircraft.

Customization. For business aviation, customers are demanding more personalized and unique cabin interior lighting, which reflect their individual tastes and requirements. This is not as simple as stitching a logo on every surface; options are required to be discrete and flexible to a range of CMF palettes.

Sustainable and Energy Efficient

Airlines are increasingly focusing on energy efficiency and sustainability, and this has affected cabin lighting—most notably, LED lighting, which Verdu says “is becoming increasingly popular in cabin lighting systems due to its energy efficiency, long lifespan, and ability to produce a wide range of colors. LED lights also emit less heat, which reduces the need for air conditioning, leading to lower fuel consumption.”

Scott Sweet, vice president of sales and marketing at Heads Up Technologies, Dallas, explains that LED upgrades are great opportunities for airlines to reduce weight—claiming 30 to 40% depending on configuration—and remove leaded fluorescent tubes. “The EU has made some significant moves toward a complete ban of fluorescent tubes this year, starting with domestic/housing applications. OEMs are looking at significantly reducing weight and power consumption on future platforms. This means our hardware needs to shrink. Luckily for us, commercial electronics—and LED especially—have made enormous progress on power consumption: over 30% increased efficiency in the past 10 years.”

While LED lighting has now been on commercial aircraft for nearly two decades, Michard claims there are still 8,000 aircraft with fluorescent tubes. “LED has transformed the lighting lifecycle from a consumable market whereby each tube was replaced every year and each ballast every three. STG in-service lights have demonstrated exceptional reliability in service, with mean time between failures exceeding one million flight hours.”

Dynamic Beyond the Familiar

Michard says STG’s latest dynamic lighting “goes beyond the now familiar sunrise/sunset.” He adds, “Airlines create completely new scenes embodying their brands. Our latest installation on Azores A321s provide the ambience for passengers to look forward to seeing the ocean and rainforest at their destination by emulating the color and dappled lighting of these locations. Customers are immersed in their journey and subsequently the brand experience.”

Heads Up Technologies offers a next-generation cabin lighting system for integration into new business jet designs. Ultra-High-Definition (UHD) lighting can provide continuously variable color temperature controllable down to the individual LED. The dense arrangement of UHD LEDs (a sixth of the volume of traditional LEDs) allows the interior designer to create custom lighting sequence effects. Sweet says the lighting system can elevate the passenger experience in several ways:

• Enhance the circadian rhythm for long flights to reduce jet lag by mimicking the sunlight of the destination
• Create lighting scenes that match activities such as meetings, meal prep, reading, and relaxation
• Adjust color temperature to augment and accentuate the material qualities of a custom interior design
• Smart lighting scenes can couple with the flight management system to be time- or phase-based.

Constantly Evolving and Integrated

Cabin lighting systems are constantly evolving, and Verdu says companies will continue to look for new technologies and new products that will enhance the cabin interior design while creating a more comfortable and relaxing environment for the passengers. But he cautions that not all interior lighting suppliers are equal. “When selecting an interior lighting supplier, we recommend being extremely careful about the quality of the light sources [such as] color rendering index and lighting steps.”

Sweet advises, “Lighting upgrade or modification needs to be integrated in a holistic manner to make sure accent lighting will work with the cabin management system. Having all dynamic lighting functions embedded in the lighting system also reduces the quantity of data traveling on the aircraft databus.”

Achieving a “Brand Nirvana”

Every airline is keen to achieve “brand nirvana,” i.e., the point at which repeat customers are willing to pay more to fly with them because of affinity toward the brand and customer experience. Consumers have many choices, including staying home. So we designers truly look at every detail in the cabin that can be leveraged to help differentiate our airline client from the rest and deliver a positive experience every single time. Lighting plays a critically important role in all of that.
The latest lighting systems have come a long way and are quite robust compared to their predecessors of 10–15 years ago. Airlines now have the ability not only to “own” a particular color, but also to create complex scenes around their brand, origin, cabin class, etc. The proof of the value of robust mood lighting systems is the number of installations on both line fit and retrofit aircraft. What was once seen as a “nice to have because the others do not have” item is now common on full service airlines, hybrids, and even LCCs.
– Daniel Baron, managing director, LIFT Aero Design, Tokyo, Japan