A UAE-based product development and design company is looking to the Internet of Things (IoT) as a means to reduce inflight food waste on aircrafts, a problem estimated to cost the airline industry around $3.9 billion annually.
The Concept came up with NEOS Fly+, an inflight smart tray that uses the world’s first IoT based in-flight technology to collect data on inflight food consumption.
The company, part of Abu Dhabi’s Hub71’s startup community, signed a partnership with Etihad Airways on Tuesday where UAE’s national airline will provide The Concept with industry expertise and access to its catering facilities and flights in support of developing the NEOS Fly+.
The anonymised data collated on Etihad will be used to highlight food consumption and wastage patterns across the network, and will help to reduce food waste, improve meal planning and reduce operating costs, according to a statement by The Concept.
A big part of the inflight food waste problem is that airlines don’t collect data on what they serve, said The Concept’s CEO and cofounder Yadhushan Mahendran. The NEOS Fly+ uses IoT to collect data on what each passenger chose for their meal and how much they ate, allowing airlines to make more conscious inflight meal decisions.
Down the line, the data collected could also help airlines build a user profile around their customers’ eating habits, explained Mahendran.
The NEOS Fly+ is also sustainable, designed with 30 percent less weight than traditional inflight trays– thereby reducing fuel consumption. The PET plastic bottles used on the plane are recycled and the material is used to make the trays.
“A lot of companies today, unfortunately, think sustainability is expensive but actually, if you do it the right way, it is cheap; for airlines, our product is 20 percent cheaper and it saves them fuel,” said Mahendran.
“We’re knocking on the door as a small company and saying, if we can do this with a tray, imagine what we can do with seats or cabin interior,” he continued. The Concept indeed has its sights set on being one the first start-ups to aid airlines in moving towards smart cabins where data is collected from cabin components, such as seats and overhead compartments.
While to date it’s operated more as a hardware-based company, The Concept is expanding its tech capabilities and hopes to generate revenues from the data it collects through that.
“Eventually, for aviation, we want to make our money on tech where we give the trays for free but charge for the data: That’s where you really make the money,” said Mahendran.
Mahendran said they are in talks with investors from other industries, including hospitals and schools, where their smart trays can also be used to control food waste and guide nutrition decisions.
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