Four of the world’s largest airlines will soon allow passengers to filter their flight searches by the in-flight “experience” offered, such as aircraft type and cabin features.

Airbus has teamed up with Routehappy, the flight merchandising platform, to help airlines create new online content that details the main selling features of its aircraft, including seat width, legroom, in-flight entertainment and connectivity.

These will be made available on a trial basis across all major sales channels of four major carriers: Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines.

“Study after study shows the ever-growing importance of the in-flight experience for the more than 3.5 billion people who travel by air every year. And yet, passengers have little information to go on when booking their flights. Finally this is changing,” said Airbus’ head of market & product strategy, Bob Lange.

The airlines will use the Routehappy’s Universal Product Attribute (UPA) tool to provide descriptions and images of their in-flight products. As well as the airlines’ own cabin products, the UPA will also highlight the key selling points of the Airbus A380 and A350 aircraft, such as the jetlag-reducing cabin pressure.

These UPAs are now being integrated into the airlines’ various sales channels and will be launched “soon”. In the meantime, a demonstration of Airbus UPAs can be viewed at routehappy.com.

“As airlines differentiate, so is flight shopping. Flyers need better information to navigate ever changing options, and the industry needs a platform that helps them showcase the products they offer,” said Robert Albert, CEO at Routehappy. “Our alliance with Airbus provides airlines an added incentive to create and distribute rich content that is becoming a key feature in how we shop for flights.”

Campbell Wilson, SIA’s senior vice president of sales & marketing, was enthusiastic about the alliance. “This important initiative will enable us to reach millions of travellers, highlighting the benefits of our award-winning cabin products which complement our long-standing commitment to service excellence, in all classes of travel,” he stated.

Between them, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines have ordered more than 300 A350s and A380s, as they modernise their fleets. The Airbus-Routehappy initiative is expected to be expanded to more airlines and additional Airbus aircraft later this year.