Here, air and everywhere: reflections from the world’s biggest aircraft interiors conference

Front Door Director, Kath Chadwick, recently jetted over to Hamburg in support of one of our clients – and has returned to tell us all about it.

I have just returned from my fourth year at the world’s biggest aircraft interiors conference AIX in Hamburg in April, supporting Front Door Comms’ client Acro Aircraft Seating.

Yes, for the uninitiated, there is a worldwide conference and exhibition where everything you need for the inside of a plane exists – and it is huge, I mean massive.

Based out of Hamburg’s Messe and Congress, it attracts around 12,000 visitors and more than 450 exhibitors. These include everything from aircraft seating manufacturers (like Acro) to airline food providers, to aeroplane blind suppliers, the list goes on. Think of everything you see inside an aircraft, it was there on display ready to be bought by airlines to fit into their in their commercial and private aircraft.

We have been supporting Acro with its PR and social media for the past four years. AIX is by far one of its biggest marketing opportunities and so we attend with them to help with social media updates before, during and after the show. We also manage the PR during the show, telling the aircraft interiors press about its innovative and market-leading seats (and this isn’t PR speak by the way, they actually are) as well as meeting and greeting airlines, suppliers and customers who visit Acro’s stand during the three days of the conference.

There is also a lot of manual graft involved, as I also help clean, arrange and generally get the stand ready for the conference before visitors arrive. That’s what we do at Front Door, muck in for anything that our clients need. (Henry the hoover is my best friend by the end of the exhibition.)

As we support Acro all year round with its PR and social media, we have gotten to know the company and its team really well and so heading to AIX every year feels like a reunion – albeit one that is pretty exhausting.

The aircraft interiors industry is like no other we’ve worked with before. Protecting the intellectual property of the seats and their designs is paramount and so rather than asking as many visitors as possible to visit the stand, as you would do for any other trade show, Acro is looking for potential customers and suppliers to make appointments, as the features and nuances of the seats are so specialised.

Nearly everyone at AIX walks around with a tape measure, as room to sit and move and having space to spare is important for passengers, crew and airlines alike, so they have their tape measures ready to check out the height and width of equipment.

Comfortable shoes are also a must as this show is massive, like huge. You really do need the whole three days of the show to see it all. It was only this year, having worked there the previous four years, that I managed to carve out some time to go and visit the food halls – and only late on the Thursday, the last day of the show, and so sadly the freebies were few and far between (come on, we all love a freebie!) But I did manage to bag some chocolate and my Acro colleague was gifted some cocktails in test tubes to take home for his wife, as well as some flavoured popcorn to take home for his kids.

Getting an insight into a brand-new industry and sector is always fascinating. Airline interiors is a very small, but worldwide, world. Many of those who have worked in the industry have done so for years and are always happy to tell you about the ins and outs of how it works, what matters to airlines and introduce you to their former colleagues. The stories of countries visited, aircraft travelled on, and cultures immersed in are entrancing.

Working at and attending the event gives you the chance to step into a world that you wouldn’t ordinarily come across in your day to day life and every year I find something else to learn about it.

And of course, you become a bit of a seat geek, as I’ll be honest, like my lovely Acro colleagues I can’t get on an aeroplane anymore without trying to suss out whose seats I’m sat in! Until next year AIX – thanks again.