AIX Hamburg 2026 Through the Eyes of APRAM Aerospace: AI-Powered Seats, Recyclable Materials, and Cabin Digitalisation

From 14 to 16 April 2026, Hamburg Messe hosted the 25th anniversary edition of Aircraft Interiors Expo, the world's most significant trade event dedicated exclusively to civil aircraft interiors. We attended as representatives of APRAM Aerospace in the role of observers and partners. The modernisation of narrow-body fleets ranks among the most significant drivers of demand for consumable and repair parts on the aftermarket. "The exhibition serves as an important barometer for us of what manufacturers are preparing and where the industry is heading," explains Alena Šimečková, CEO of APRAM Aerospace.

This year's edition welcomed 479 exhibitors and approximately 12,000 trade visitors from around the world. Nearly half came from Europe, just under a fifth from North and South America, the same share from the Asia-Pacific region, with the remainder arriving from the Middle East and Africa. The programme unfolded across three main thematic threads that ran throughout the three-day exhibition: sustainability and the recyclable economy, digitalisation of the passenger experience, and the sharply rising importance of the business aviation segment.

A New Zone for Business Aviation

A new feature of this year's edition was the standalone BizJet Interiors Zone located in Hall B1. It responds to an economic shift that has become impossible to overlook in recent years. The global business jet market is estimated to grow from USD 48 billion in 2025 to nearly USD 68 billion by 2032. Within the broader context of the exhibition, this segment is significant even for those who do not work directly with private aviation. According to organiser Archana Dharni, business jets function as the industry's testing ground. Materials, lighting, and digital interfaces that appear today in luxury cabins typically find their way into commercial fleets within five to ten years. Tracking this segment therefore helps anticipate what the cabin of an Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 will look like several years from now.

AI-Powered Seats: Narrow-Body Modernisation in Full Swing

If this year's edition had one dominant theme, it was seating – and in particular the modernisation of fleet seating, especially within the A320 and B737 families, which are key areas of focus for APRAM Aerospace. Collins Aerospace announced that it had secured three launch airline customers for its new Helix economy seat, with installations planned across approximately 200 aircraft. Each such fleet renewal generates long-term demand for associated parts, consumables, and retrofit support.

Germany's RECARO Aircraft Seating – one of the most prominent manufacturers of economy-class seating – announced annual revenues of EUR 710 million this year and production of nearly 120,000 seats. Its stand featured the R7 Horizon technology demonstrator for business class, which according to the company is approximately one fifth lighter than comparable solutions and incorporates AI-based voice control in more than ninety languages. The second major highlight was the R Sphere concept seat, which received the Crystal Cabin Award in the sustainability category. It saves approximately 1.5 kilograms per passenger, and its design enables modular component replacement during servicing, with a non-negligible impact on the lifespan of the aircraft interior.

French company Expliseat, a specialist in ultralight titanium and carbon seats, used Hamburg to announce its entry into the US market and unveiled the TiSeat S business-class product designed for Embraer E-Jet and Bombardier CRJ regional aircraft for the first time. Weight savings compared with traditional solutions reach as much as forty percent. Thompson Aero Seating, Unum Aircraft Seating, and Elevate Aircraft Seating (a new brand from Boeing) presented premieres for the A350 and Boeing 787 – a market where competition for orders from major airlines is intense.

Airspace First Class: Airbus Pushes the Boundaries of Luxury

The exhibition's most prominent media moment belonged to Airbus and its Airspace "First Class Experience" concept for the A350-1000. Hamburg hosted a complete mock-up featuring a centrally positioned Master Suite apartment for two passengers, complemented by its own lavatory, changing area, bar, and double bed. A three-suite configuration required a complete rebuild of the forward cabin section. Currently only two airlines offer first class on this aircraft type, with approximately five more in the preparatory phase and the concept's entry into service anticipated from 2030. The strategic dimension is clear: Airbus intends to establish the A350-1000 as its flagship long-haul aircraft before the Boeing 777X enters service.

Cabin Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence – Again

The In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity zone (IFEC) hosted 77 exhibitors and pointed to a clear direction of development: a shift away from closed proprietary systems toward scalable platforms that can be gradually extended and updated. Thales presented a new generation of FlytEDGE Aura with 4K HDR10+ Tandem OLED screens, and Panasonic Avionics introduced the eXNeo system aimed at modernising older aircraft without a complete hardware replacement. Rosen Aviation demonstrated the Avia concept, a fully three-dimensional onboard assistant powered by artificial intelligence, designed to go beyond mere voice control and make contextual decisions based on passenger behaviour. RAVE Aerospace underwent a rebranding and introduced an entire ecosystem of connected digital services, including AI-powered search and a conversational interface.

On the data connectivity side, several technically important innovations were presented. ThinKom revealed an antenna in a compact format capable of simultaneous operation across GEO, MEO, and LEO satellite constellations – one consequence of the consolidation of the satellite segment around operators such as Starlink and Viasat. SES announced a partnership with Google to standardise connectivity of Android-based devices to onboard Wi-Fi – a seemingly minor development that will nevertheless affect the everyday experience of millions of passengers.

Recyclable Materials in the Passenger Cabin

One of the exhibits that most captured our attention was a printer from German company AIM3D combined with ULTEM Recycle material from the SABIC group. The technology does not use conventional filament but works directly with plastic granulate, which according to the manufacturer results in material costs up to seven times lower than with filament-based printers. In tests with ULTEM 9085 – a traditional aerospace polymer compliant with FAR 25.853 and UL94 V-0 standards – the printed parts achieve tensile strength comparable to components produced on injection moulding machines.

More important than the economics of printing, however, is the sustainability dimension. SABIC presented a closed-loop principle: parts made from ULTEM materials, whether end-of-life components from the cabin or technological offcuts from production, are ground into granulate and reprinted into functional components retaining the original regulatory certification. In practice, this means that the material footprint of an aircraft interior can begin to close without the manufacturer having to abandon qualified materials. For spare parts distribution and the aftermarket, this is a significant signal – documentation of material origin and traceability will likely grow in importance, while the category of locally printed replacement parts may acquire its own certification pathways in the years to come.

The movement toward measurable sustainability was evident across the entire exhibition. SEKISUI KYDEX introduced the KYDEX ECO 6565HI thermoplastic designed using life-cycle analysis. A consortium led by Gen Phoenix, together with Boeing, Teague, Elevate Aircraft Seating, Aerofoam, and the Müller Textil group, presented the CirculAir Guide – a methodological document that embeds circularity principles into seat design from the earliest conceptual stages. In parallel, Emirates announced an expansion of its own programme for the traceable processing of retired interiors, including certified volumes of recycled material and the transformation of leather covers from retired A380s into fashion and specialist products.

Crystal Cabin Awards: Recognising Creativity and Modernisation

The ceremonial announcement of the 25th Crystal Cabin Awards took place at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on 14 April. Diehl Aviation received the award in the accessibility category for its AURS system, which enables blind and deaf passengers to navigate onboard lavatories. Collins Aerospace won the comfort category for its SkyNook concept – a semi-private rest zone at the rear of the cabin. AviusULD took home the award in cabin technology for its Smart Fire Tag for cargo containers. Delta Air Lines won the IFEC category for its Connected Onboard Platform, which unifies onboard entertainment, connectivity, and operational data into a single data architecture. RECARO won the sustainability category for the R Sphere seat. Start-up Quvia received the newly introduced Breakthrough Start-ups category for its AI tool for analysing the digital onboard experience.

The Supply Chain in Europe Is Changing

The choice of Hamburg as the host city for AIX is no coincidence. The city represents the world's second-largest aviation hub – home to Airbus production facilities, the European headquarters of Lufthansa Technik, and hundreds of subcontractors. This was reflected this year in the composition of exhibitors: German manufacturers predominated, both long-established players and a number of new brands that used the exhibition as a gateway to the European market.

A striking phenomenon of this year's edition, compared with previous years, was the marked absence of Chinese companies. The only Chinese exhibitor was seat manufacturer Jiatai, specifically Hubei Hangyu Jiatai, which after the exhibition reported concluded contracts with VietJet, Air Arabia, Flyadeal, and Ethiopian Airlines. Together these contracts cover more than one hundred aircraft with deliveries through 2030 and suggest that Chinese seat manufacturers remain active primarily in directions toward airlines from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

The second commercially significant trend was the consolidation of the European supply chain. European manufacturers of interior components are investing substantially in expanding warehouse capacity and shortening lead times. One route they are pursuing is acquiring licences to produce American manufacturers' products directly in Europe. A specific example is the Trelleborg group, which this year will obtain a licence to produce Magee Plastic window shades, cabin panels, and other components. For airlines, this means shorter lead times, avoidance of customs barriers, and certification directly under EASA. In the same spirit, Danish company LEKI Aviation announced an expansion of its distribution portfolio.

This shift naturally changes certain rules in the sale of spare parts. Many new aircraft and retrofit programmes today originate through direct contracts between OEMs and airlines, bypassing the traditional supply chain. For the distributor, this means a shift in emphasis from broad portfolios toward specialisation in segments where added value remains irreplaceable – AOG deliveries within hours, rotable components with complete histories, consumables for specific aircraft types, and operational support during cabin refresh projects. For APRAM Aerospace, which has long focused on A320 and Boeing 737 fleets, this is an environment in which the importance of specialisation, delivery speed, and proven quality processes continues to grow.

What This Means for the Spare Parts Trade

For a spare parts distributor such as APRAM Aerospace, three practical conclusions emerge from this year's edition. First, passenger seat renewal is gathering genuine momentum – the Collins Aerospace agreement covering two hundred aircraft is merely the tip of the iceberg, and a series of similar orders can be expected in the years ahead. Every such modernisation will generate long-term demand for associated materials, repair components, and consumable parts.

Second, the gradual adoption of additive manufacturing in the aircraft cabin interior sector is changing the rules of the game for certain parts categories. Certification pathways for printed components are still taking shape – whether via PMA processes, the Designated Engineering Representative route, or EASA Form 1 – and their distribution will require a new level of documentation, origin tracking, and quality management.

The third conclusion relates to professionalism and expertise: pressure on material traceability will continue to increase, and for a distributor with well-developed processes this represents an opportunity to strengthen its role as a trusted partner rather than a threat to its existing position. "This is absolutely essential. At APRAM Aerospace we have used a professional system since our founding, tailored precisely to the requirements of our customers and partners. From the very beginning of the company's operation, all processes have been set up in great detail, and we rigorously track the provenance of every part. A customer can therefore receive documentation going back even 15 years upon request," adds Managing Director Alena Šimečková.

Over the quarter-century chronicled by Aircraft Interiors Expo, the aircraft passenger cabin has transformed more than most other parts of the aircraft. From the first lie-flat beds in first class to today's combination of recyclable materials, 3D-printed components, and onboard AI assistants, interior modernisation is advancing faster than was often anticipated. For those of us engaged in the logistics of spare parts for the A320 and B737, it is important to follow these trends not merely as technical curiosities but as factors that within a few years will define which parts, in what volumes, and with what documentation airlines will require.