Butterfly Flexible Seating Solutions, SEKISUI SPI, Tapis, and MGR Foamtex collaborate for AIX 2020

SEKISUI SPI, Butterfly Flexible Seating Solutions, Tapis, and MGR Foamtex have joined forces to bring a unique new seat to aviation interiors.

"We are excited to help innovative startups like Butterfly bring their disruptive ideas into the market," says Ronn Cort, President and COO of SEKISUI SPI, speaking at Red Cabin's Aircraft Cabin Innovation Summit in London. "That's the mission of our appLab, an innovation center where 'what ifs?' become fully-fledged projects."

SEKISUI SPI will collaborate with Butterfly to develop customer-centric material solutions using KYDEX Thermoplastics, which are lighter, safer, stronger, and more recyclable than alternative materials.

Butterfly is a flexible seating solution that allows instant transformation between premium economy/regional business class and long-haul flatbed suites. The collaboration between the two companies culminated from discussions following last June's Red Cabin Summit in Seattle, a unique event that brought together leading creators in the aviation interiors market.

"With our partners' know-how, we can put Butterfly in the position to be competitive with both standard recliners as well as business class lie-flat suite. We are in the process of creating a seat that we are happy to sell, airlines are thrilled to buy, and passengers are delighted to sit in," says Lars Rinne, Butterfly's Co-Founder and Commercial Director.

SEKISUI SPI is pleased to be among Butterfly's core cohort of suppliers and innovators to develop the next generation of aviation seats. Butterfly's next iteration prototype will debut at the 2020 Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg, Germany.