Aviointeriors S.p.A. is an Italian manufacturer of airline seats. Some of Aviointeriors' competitors include

BE Aerospace B/E Aerospace, Inc. was a manufacturer of aircraft passenger cabin interior products for the commercial and business jet aircraft markets. B/E Aerospace had leading worldwide market shares in all of its major product lines and served virtually al ...

Recaro Recaro Holding, as the parent company of the Recaro Group, owns the Recaro brand and the independently operating companies Recaro Aircraft Seating (aircraft seats) based in Schwäbisch Hall and Recaro eGaming (gaming seats) based in Stuttgart, Germ ...

, and

Zodiac Aerospace Zodiac Aerospace was a French aerospace group founded in 1896 that supplied systems and equipment for aircraft. It had around 100 sites across the globe and employed nearly 35,000 people. In October 2018, it was acquired by French aerospace an ...

History

Founding

The company was founded as a branch of the “Uno-Pi” a home furniture company part of the CIFA (Confederazione Italiana Fabbriche Arredamento) group owned by Giovanni Pofferi 908 –1995 The CIFA Group included the Permaflex brand, that introduced, in 1950, spring-mattress technology in Italy. (Permaflex, during the 1960s and the 1970s, was used in Italian common language as a generic trademark for the spring-mattress). The CIFA group, in an effort to expand the market of the furnishing sector, found an opportunity in commercial aviation with the ATLAS consortium of airlines: comprising

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global a ...

Alitalia Alitalia - Società Aerea Italiana S.p.A., operating as Alitalia (), was an Italian airline which was once the flag carrier and largest airline of Italy. The company had its head office in Fiumicino, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital. The ai ...

All Nippon Airways , also known as ANA (''Ē-enu-ē'') or is an airline in Japan. Its headquarters are located in Shiodome City Center in the Shiodome area of Minato ward of Tokyo. It operates services to both domestic and international destinations and had m ...

, Lufthansa/Condor,

Sabena The ''Societé anonyme belge d'Exploitation de la Navigation aérienne'' (French; ), better known by the acronym Sabena or SABENA, was the national airline of Belgium from 1923 to 2001, with its base at Brussels National Airport. After its ba ...

and (from. January 1972)

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

. This consortium was established to create a European common technical standard for aircraft systems and a centralized purchasing office.

sponsored within the ATLAS consortium a joint-venture between the newborn Aviointeriors and the French Sicma. The joint-venture was established to share the aircraft cabin equipment market of the members of the ATLAS consortium. Aviointeriors supplied seats and food trolleys for 50% of the European airlines joining ATLAS. A facility was built in Latina in 1974. The joint-venture with Sicma did not last long. Aviointeriors acquired the technical know-how to design, manufacture and sell products on its own. The company moved its headquarters from the CIFA building in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

to the plant in Latina, where they are today. The furnishing of the Alitalia fleet continued in the following years, but the national market was shared with another company, Alven, that Alitalia also sponsored to avoid an Italian monopoly of the cabin interiors manufacturing. Aviointeriors expanded its market in the 1970s by developing fittings and furniture for V.I.P. Agusta helicopters and private aircraft.

The Alven takeover

At the beginning of the 1980s, the CIFA group suffered a financial crisis and Aviointeriors was put up for sale. After a first offer by Irvin Aerospace, the company was acquired in May 1986 by the Veneruso family owning the Alven which was, at that time, a competitor based near Naples. Advanced seating products in the business class sector, helped Aviointeriors to reach the North and South American market, expanding also in the Far East.

Aviointeriors today

Today the company is focused on the seat market. A full range, from regional economy class seats to first class is produced and sold globally. Aviointerior products are installed on aircraft ranging from the 40 seats regional

turboprops A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. F ...

to the 400 seats intercontinental

jetliners A jet airliner or jetliner is an airliner powered by jet engines (passenger jet aircraft). Airliners usually have two or four jet engines; three-engined designs were popular in the 1970s but are less common today. Airliners are commonly clas ...

. From its initial production of mechanical economy and business class seats, Aviointeriors now include in its lineup electrically actuated lie-flat seats and full-flat seats with surrounding service furniture. Among developments is a seating concept known as SkyRider, this is a saddle-like airline seat where seat pitch is reduced to 23 inches. Aviointeriors claims that these seats allow up to 40% increase in passenger capacity.

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

"Giddyup: Saddle seat a new squeeze on fliers?"
Marnie Hunte, ''14 September 2010'' (accessed 15 September 2010)

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

"SkyRider: new 'saddle' seat allows airlines to 'cram' more passengers"
Andrew Hough, ''14 September 2010'' (accessed 15 September 2010) New York Daily News
"Saddle up! New airplane seat design is made for cowpokes, not real passengers"
Robert Dominguez, ''14 September 2010'' (accessed 15 September 2010)

References

External links

Aviointeriors S.p.A.
{{Aircraft seat manufacturers Aircraft component manufacturers of Italy Airliner seating Italian brands Manufacturing companies established in 1972 Italian companies established in 1972