Problem being addressed:
Long-distance travelling includes transit and long waiting times at the terminals during which people request a place to rest. According to Maslow's hierarchy, sleep is one of the fundamental needs of the human life. Traditional sofas do not provide privacy and leave the luggage unprotected. Transit to airport hotel takes a great deal of the limited time to relax. Airports need sleeping and privacy services to improve passenger satisfaction. Airports have specific criteria for the services and functions which are typical for them. For example, furniture must be readily transferable since the airport changes regularly and the fire safety need to be taken into account.
Overall objectives:
GoSleep answers the market need with an innovative product and service solution. GoSleep V2 Pod is unique Finnish design and truly innovative seating solution designed to add value to the terminal experience while offering quality rest to the passenger, complete customer satisfaction and a fantastic revenue opportunity for the operator. GoSleep V2 Pod is fully automatic reclining seat covered by breathable privacy shade. It has secure storage for hand luggage and universal recharging points.
Benefits for the society:
GoSleep pods offer many benefits for the society:
GoSleep Pods enhance the mobility of people. The innovation creates new service market for the airport operators and providing workplaces for up to 1500 persons globally of which approximately 400 in Europe. The global commercialisation of GoSleep Pods for the airports creates 1500-3000 direct and indirect workplaces. The use of GoSleep Pods instead of hotels decreases the traffic and emissions around the airports
Conclusions of the action:
The global Covid-19 pandemic has had a severe impact on GoSleep’s business as it has had an effect to the whole global aviation industry. In 2019, even early 2020, the estimations on how the flying passenger numbers will grow were on their highest and most optimistic levels, and the 3.7 billion annual passengers were a solid indication of the potential of this particular industry.
Majority of GoSleep’s business and revenue is coming from the airports when the Covid-19 pandemic hit and stopped the world. Before this, the company’s order books were full and the sales trend growing. During February-March 2020 we started to receive order cancellation or postponing of orders in a rapid way due to the fact what impact Covid-19 had to the aviation industry, completely stopping the passenger flows. At the same time, GoSleep’s own operation at Helsinki-Vantaa airport stopped in a very short period of a time. Currently occupancy rate is ca. 10% compared pre-covid times, which doesn’t cover our cost and over heads.
Due to Covid-19 caused “lock down” of the airports, we were not able to start the planned test pilot of the V2 prototype pod. This “lock down” has now continued almost 1.5 years and is very difficult to predict when it will be finished. Predicting when Covid-19 is “under control” and the world will open, is very difficult or close to impossible, for big size aviation corporations as well.
