ST Engineering’s Commercial Aerospace business has received an EASA STC for Access, a cabin lavatory solution currently designed for installation on the A320 family.
Developed with passengers with reduced mobility (PRMs) in mind, Access can be expanded to bring about 40% more space to accommodate a passenger in a wheelchair and an accompanying caregiver. Following the successful certification for implementation on the A320 aircraft, ST Engineering is working next to make Access available on the Boeing 737 platform. The design of Access for the Boeing 737 has already been completed, with certification targeted for 2024.
Ling Meng Geah, director programme office, cabin interiors and engineering solutions at ST Engineering, said, “The EASA certification marks a significant milestone for us in bringing to market a viable cabin interior solution that makes air travel more inclusive. As we work towards more certifications and extending the solution to more aircraft platforms, we hope that like-minded operators will jump onboard with the adoption of Access so that as many passengers with reduced mobility as possible can benefit from it.”
To minimise retrofitting costs and barriers to adoption for operators, Access has been designed for easy installation, requiring no reduction in seat count and galley space while accommodating existing structural attachment points as well as electrical and system connections. Once installed, the Access lavatory can also be readily deployed within seconds by individual crew members and easily returned to its original state when not in use. The human-centric design of Access has been developed to fulfil all the proposed requirements by the US Department of Transport to increase accessibility for lavatories on narrowbody aircraft.
Earlier this year, ST Engineering entered into a LOI with Vaayu Group to provide the latter with 20 units of Access for installation on A320 and B737 aircraft, making Vaayu a launch customer for the cabin interior solution.
