From 1 August, the Brazilian arm of LATAM Airlines, a South American airline based in Chile, will introduce the Airbus A350 900 XWB aircraft to its Johannesburg-São Paulo route.
Interestingly, the cabin has an intelligent LED lighting system that simulates natural phases of the day, by changing the colour temperature to mimic sunlight during the flight. This is intended to help reduce the effects of jet lag.
The idea behind it is that passengers should be able to adapt to the changes in light better and therefore produce melatonin at a time that will help to prepare people for a good night’s sleep after they land.
According to BCR.com ‘The system is apparently capable of producing 16.7 million different light colour combinations that can be adapted to any flight length or change of time zones.’
Fifty-three percent of the new plane’s frame is made from strong but lightweight carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic, which is a higher percentage than on previous models. This means that there’s less condensation on the body which leads to lower humidity around the plane.
This means that the Airbus can reduce air pressure to cabin pressure to 6,000ft (which is closer to the pressure on the ground than other models), and the air inside the plane gets refreshed every two to three minutes.
These elements should also reduce the effects of feeling tired after a long haul flight.
The A350 has a two-class configuration with fully reclining seats in business class, panoramic windows and wider overhead lockers for more storage space in economy class.
Compared with previous generation aircraft, the A350 XWB is 25% cheaper to operate when it comes to fuel burn and CO2 emissions.
Featured image: Airbus
