Panasonic is turning your long haul flight into a wellness retreat

Wellness is the big trend in travel at the moment, with tourists jetting around the world in search of the most relaxing and energising experiences money can buy.

But what's the point in a week-long stay at Amangiri, or Six Senses Bhutan if you have a stressful and unpleasant plane journey home, instantly undoing all of the work those expensive treatments did?

Well, we have some good news, because Panasonic Avionics has just announced a raft of new in-flight technologies designed to improve the comfort, health and wellbeing of passengers inflight. 

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Panasonic’s Wellness solutions were developed alongside the research and development teams from Panasonic Corporation in Japan, and include Active Noise Control, Premium Seat Lighting and Panasonic’s 'nanoe' technology.

David Bartlett, Chief Technology Officer of Panasonic Avionics Corporation, states “Our airline partners are actively researching new ways to enhance passenger well-being, especially on long-haul flights," and that these technologies are the, "first set of solutions that we believe will dramatically enhance the flying experience.” 

Here's a little more detail about the new technologies:

Active Noise Control enables airlines to reduce ambient noise around each seat to just 15dB without the use of headphones. The technology is adaptable to each seat configuration and will calibrate automatically to a passenger’s seat inflight, reducing fatigue and improving the flying experience.

Premium Seat Lighting tailors a passenger’s lighting experience to different phases of the flight, improving both their health and wellness onboard. Specialised sleep and wake algorithms ensure passengers have the best possible rest inflight and awake refreshed and at their body’s own pace. Lighting scheduled during meal services is optimised to improve food colour saturation whilst reading lights are designed to reduce eye strain for passengers. For the airline, a range of accent lighting highlights themes and branding in the cabin with differentiation available for First and Business class sections. 

'nanoe' air cleansing in the cabin and around a passenger’s seating area, when required, by applying low voltage to moisture which bursts into nano-sized electrostatic atomised particles at a rate of 480 billion nm particles per second. The result is the removal of viruses, bacteria, fungi and odours from the cabin resulting in a pleasant cabin experience. 

This Panasonic tech will be added to aircraft this year, and will be available on both long and short-haul flights. 

Can't wait until then? Here are five things you can do to upgrade your flight.