Portable wireless IFE vendor AirFi secured three new customers in recent weeks, extending its leading role in the market. Air Arabia, Air Seychelles and Bamboo Airways will all fly the company’s kit, bringing entertainment services to passengers on board. In all three cases the systems will be installed on A320 family aircraft for the airlines.
Air Arabia completed its trial of the AirFi solution across ten aircraft earlier this month. The carrier is satisfied with the performance and reliability of the offering, choosing to execute a broader deployment. Branded as “SkyTime” the Air Arabia implementation will cover more than 50 aircraft in the carrier’s fleet based in Sharjah, UAE. The AVOD content selection on the SkyTime implementation covers multiple languages, supporting the carriers growing network of flights across the Gulf region, Northern Africa, Indian subcontinent, Russia, Central Asia and Europe.
Air Seychelles will deploy the system across its pair of new A320neo aircraft. While previously announced, the deal should come to fruition in the next few weeks as the aircraft are delivered. The typical content selection of movies, TV shows. music and games will be augmented with a custom curated Creole music channel catering to its local clientele. Air Seychelles CEO Remco Althuis notes that the carrier is looking to both improve passenger experience while also reducing costs and increasing ancillary revenue opportunities. The new generation of streaming IFE systems delivers on that potential:
AirFi will allow Air Seychelles to operate more efficiently because with the elimination of seatback screens, guests will need to use their own devices and headsets to stream the entertainment content. Therefore with less on board equipment and less impact in the weight, Air Seychelles will be able to better generate its fuel efficiency. At the end of the day throughout the transformation plan our mandate is to ensure that the products Air Seychelles chooses are reliable, sustainable, plus cost effective and after intense research we have identified AirFi as the best option moving forward.
Vietnamese upstart carrier Bamboo Airways launched operations earlier this year with a mixed fleet of owned and wet-leased aircraft. The portable nature of the AirFi system allows the company to deliver a more consistent entertainment offering to passengers while maintaining the value of its investment as the wet lease planes are returned to their operators. The Hanoi-based carrier is expected to transition from its temporary fleet to 24 A321neo and 20 787-9 aircraft in the coming years, with the AirFi solution at the core of the passenger entertainment offering. Movies, TV programming, games, audio, digital
publications, viral videos and moving map content will be offered in multiple languages including Vietnamese, English, Korean, Japanese, Chinese and French.
The Bamboo Airways contract calls for AirFi to deliver a fully managed solution to the airline. AirFi will take responsibility for all hardware, software, content provisioning and ancillary revenue generation.
Separately, AirFi released details from industry surveys indicating that the company now holds more than 50% of the market share for portable wireless IFE solutions installed on aircraft. The next closest competitor sits below 20% market share. Its dominant position in a fast-growing market makes it the fifth largest wireless IFE operator overall by total aircraft count.
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