The Business of Passenger Experience
Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC) and Inmarsat are poised to reshape the inflight connectivity world with a landmark deal. The ten year strategic collaboration project will see PAC sell Inmarsat's Ka-band GX connectivity solution while Inmarsat bundles some of PAC's data analytics and services offerings into its sales efforts. Is this the consolidation the market so desperately craves?
Canadian upstart Swoop, the ULCC arm of WestJet, aims to succeed as an airline mostly by not really acting like an airline. Sure, there are airplanes and pilots and such, but CEO Steven Greenway is adamant that change come quickly. And he’s keen to dramatically upset the North American aviation market along the way.
Work on the first Spirit Airlines aircraft to receive its Thales-supplied inflight wifi connectivity hardware is underway. Installation efforts started this week at an MRO with Thales overseeing the work.
Hawaiian will soon operate a new longest domestic US flight. The carrier will launch service 5x weekly between Honolulu and Boston starting on 4 April 2019. The 5,095 mile flight is the longest domestic US route, besting the Honolulu-JFK service by just over 100 miles.
Looking for a very different seat on board? Head to China, where one airline is finally set to fly with the Molon Labe Staggered Seat design that promises up to 5″ extra width for the middle seat passenger. And if could be flying in the Americas in the not too distant future, too.
Eutelsat and Arianespace signed a five launch deal this week, including use of the Ariane 6 rocket now in development. That’s a big rocket and a big deal for the two.
Viasat now holds launch contracts for all three satellites of its upcoming ViaSat-3 constellation. The company announced today that United Launch Alliance (ULA) will carry one of the three satellites into orbit between 2020 to 2022 on an Atlas 5 rocket.
Chalk up another split fleet for inflight connectivity. The latest intelligence in to PaxEx.Aero suggests another A350 operator will add a new vendor to its IFC roster.
In the Americas the relationship between Gogo and TMobile to deliver complimentary inflight wifi to passengers is well established. Europe is about to see a similar solution launch. Telekom and Lufthansa Group are teaming up to deliver connectivity in the sky as part of the mobile tariff on the ground.
Hong Kong Airlines celebrated the delivery of a new tranche of A350s this week, bringing new inflight products to the carrier. The airline’s early A350 deliveries were originally built for Azul; the current set were meant for HK Airlines all along. That means different seats, entertainment systems and inflight connectivity kit on board.
