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eyelevel joins commercial airline cart market

UK–based leading supplier of luxury products to private jets and luxury airlines, eyelevel, has now entered the commercial airline market with Cartmax, a retail unit designed to maximise the opportunity for ancillary sales on commercial airlines.

 

Cartmax has been developed by Matthew Delamere, MD of eyelevel, and is provided as a flat packed, fold-out, recycled, cardboard unit that sits within the deep tray compartment of an airline trolley. It is intended to provide an attractive point of sale proposition utilising colourful branding options on the exterior panels which will support flight attendants' sales activity. Delamere also runs sister company Croft Display, which focuses on designing and manufacturing point-of-sale display equipment for blue chip retail companies. He has used experience from this business to develop Cartmax over the last eight months, and says he is receiving serious interest from leading international carriers who are looking for ways to improve ancillary revenues.

“People buy with their eyes and retail in general has always provided strong points of sales for their goods. You’d never see a supermarket display products without graphics to attract attention, and Cartmax simply takes this proposition and puts it on aircraft,” stated Delaware.

 

Cartmax provides a number of options for airlines to increase revenue: It can be used as an advertising medium enabling the airline to sell the “space” to outside sponsors for periods of time; it can be used as a medium for the airline to promote offers on-board such as menus of new café ranges; alternatively airlines can make carts more relevant by having the images changed according to the time of year eg during Christmas or major sporting events so encouraging the sales of corresponding items; and for passengers using earphones for inflight entertainment it can help clearly distinguish between food and inflight sales service.

The design of the unit means that airlines do not have to adapt their existing trolleys, as the cardboard module fits into a standard deep tray, nor does it need extra storage space as it becomes part of the trolley cart. Made of cardboard it is light so airlines will not incur any noticeable extra weight. “We’ve aimed to create a product that serves a variety of purposes. Airlines can increase revenues in a number of ways at a cost-effective price, it should make flight attendant’s jobs easier, and it will improve the aesthetics of the cabin with its colourful displays,” added Delaware.

A number of airlines are already considering trials and eyelevel is aiming for initial on-board tests to begin in May. Among the airlines is UK airline Flybe, which is currently reviewing the Cartmax's potential.

 

Raymond Kiersey, general manager of inflight sales at Flybe commented, “Airlines are always looking at means of developing ancillary revenue and it seems that Cartmax could offer great potential for increased revenues which is why we’re reviewing trials.”

Patents for the Cartmax design have already been awarded in the UK and Europe, and eyelevel is currently exploring the patent process in the Americas.

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