Why do airplanes look like nightclubs now?

The travel journalist Paula Froelich remembers walking onto her first Virgin America flight and thinking, “What is this, a club?” When the airline launched in the US in 2007, industrial designer Adam Wells decided to avoid the sickly “yellow-green fluorescent lighting” standard on planes in favor of warm, pinkish-purple mood lighting, already a feature in Virgin Atlantic’s first class cabin. The goal was to make the often stressful experience of air travel more welcoming and relaxing — and possibly even pleasant.