The importance of seating comfort

At Zoeftig, our industry knowledge and experience gives us an understanding on the requirements that different airports may have, durability, easy maintenance and specific passenger flow, but we also understand that happy and comfortable travellers lies at the heart of customer loyalty.

With that in mind, the importance of airport seating is paramount in airport gates and lounges — even if a passengers departure experience runs smoothly and on time, we expect them to be using airport seating for approximately 60 minutes before their flight, however, should things go awry, these times can be significantly extended at which point an option that’s not only comfortable, but also user friendly, really comes into its own. 

Comfort can be defined as “a thing that promotes calmness” so as much as a seats aesthetic form is important, it’s function is equal to that. Each of the Zoeftig seating products has various options to build seating units that are tailored to your specific passenger demographics and their needs & wants.

Why Ergonomic Design is key

The ergonomic property of our seating is something that begins at the very early stages of our design process long before product development begins. We invest a large portion of our time and resource into how we can make our seats as ergonomically efficient as possible, which is always be a hard question to answer — you aren’t designing a product for one specific profile, you must build a product that is comfortable and suitable for every body shape that will be passing through an airport. We’re always proud when these questions are answered correctly, and it gives us great pleasure to hear from clients that they also feel the same way.

A variety of seating options

Seating variety across any airport concourse is as important as any single seats comfort itself — our seating is designed be a dynamic product that is available for all passenger profile types to use effectively; should that be a family that needs inclusive seating for parents and children to interact; a solo business traveller who wants some privacy, power options and space to work effectively on the move; or it could be an accessible seating option to allow airports to meet all the ADA / DDA & PRM requirements allowing dedicated space for their reduced mobility passengers.

When looking to design an effective seating plan for an airport, a good option is to use a variety of seating styles rather than just one product type. 

A great start point for this would be to engage with the team of Zoeftig industry experts who can bring together and harmonise different Zoeftig product ranges that will suit your environment and work within your space. 

A perfect example for this would be providing a cohesive specification using Zoeftig Vista and one of the traditional high density Zoeftig product ranges. When you break these seats down to base level, their structures have similar forms and can both be finished in the same style, the seats, tables and other surfaces can be dressed using complementary upholstery and solid surface materials — these considered and logical steps will allow you to build a solid seating layout, that will change the landscape of your concourse and be sure to cater to all the airports needs and raising your passengers experience.

Technology Integration in airports is vital

With the growing desire to be “on at all times” we work hard to provide passengers with the options needed to keep their batteries fully juiced. We have various power options that are available for all of our seats, and a couple of seating specific power options for our new flagship product, Vista.

Our standard power options include the Link and Boost modules, each of which can be mounted under a seat, between the arms, or above/below a tabletop unit. Both power options give users the options to have USB-A, USB-C, and mains (3 or 2 pin) power, depending on the country’s standard requirements. With Vista, the power offerings are further exaggerated, and include the addition of power sockets that are built into the product itself rather than using an external module, as well as our newest option in the form of a wireless mid-seat table, that means a user can be completely cable-free which is a bonus when everything is neatly stowed in a bag ready for transit.

Why Zoeftig is the airport seating provider for you

In summary, the key points which we should always take into consideration when designing any airport seating layout are:

  • Is our layout accessible for all users?
  • Are we catering correctly to the needs of all passenger demographics?
  • Does my seating work aesthetically & cohesively as a unit with our interior scheme?

Hopefully this piece has served to help you to think in a broader way about the importance of your airport’s seating and opened up a host of new opportunities for your next terminal project, allowing you to really cater to the needs of everyone passing through.

Should you have any questions or queries for our team of seating experts, then please feel free to get in touch with us today, and we will be able to help you find the best solution to get your seating correct and your passengers happy.