Sweet new premium cabins and another step towards free wifi for passengers top the headlines for this week’s passenger experience news.
The Polar Connectivity Push
Emirates issued a press release touting inflight connectivity over the North Pole, which is interesting since none of the carrier’s aircraft can deliver that today and the service from Inmarsat’s GX Aviation network won’t exist until 2023. But perhaps there’s more involved in the story??
Delta continues to push towards free inflight wifi
“Entertainment will continue to be a differentiator for Delta moving forward.” That includes free WiFi for passengers, a product that is still on the roadmap for the company.
ANA brings new luxury to 777-300ER retrofit
New luxury takes flight with ANA next month as the carrier brings its latest cabin interiors into service.
Bjørn Kjos retires as CEO of Norwegian
Call it the end of an era. After 17 years in the role Bjørn Kjos, the CEO of Norwegian, will step down from the role with immediate effect.
WOW Air is Dead; Long Live WAB Air
WOW Air is dead. Completely dead. The planes are mostly off flying for other airlines while the true financial impact of the collapse remains u der debate. And yet. Perhaps there is a chance for another life for the flashy, LCC after all?
Virgin Atlantic acquisition of Flybe approved
Flybe’s absorbtion into the Virgin Atlantic family receive final approval from the European Commission last week, with conditions applied. At least one competitor will be disappointed at just how limited the conditions are.
Hackity hack, pay that back
Travel companies (along with nearly everyone else) have spent the past several years talking up how important and valuable the data they collect about passengers is. This week two of them saw huge penalties announced for failing to protect that data. Big rewards availalbe down the line, but big risks along the way.
Norwegian drops Vegas service. Again.
Norwegian will not fly its 787s from London to Las Vegas this winter. That is one of a dozen routes affected in the latest long-haul LCC shakeup.
PaxEx Update: 2019-07-05
Welcome to the PaxEx Update for 5 July 2019, bringing you biggest headlines on what’s changed for passenger experience in the past week.