The Business of Passenger Experience
The first Virgin Atlantic A350-1000 is starting to come together in Toulouse, France. Parts for MSN 274 are arriving at the final assembly line and there's an interesting surprise atop the aft fuselage section: A radome.
Carlsbad, California will, once again, have commercial air service. California Pacific Airlines (CPA) will do the honors this time around, launching multiple daily frequencies to Reno, NV and San Jose, CA on 1 November 2018.
Benjamin Smith’s early days at Air France-KLM will be anything but easy. Union issues dog the company and the latest salvo from Joon flight attendants is a doozy!
Icelandair faces a significant revenue shortfall in 2018 owing to growing competition and mistakes in growing its route network. The parent company of the airline also needs to find a new CEO. Björgólfur Jóhannsson took full responsibility for the missed numbers and tendered his resignation to the Icelandair Group Board of Directors.
More games means more options for travelers. And the variety here is strong. Plus the company is delivering across verticals, helping on the cost side of the operation. Will Monopoly really score with travelers??
LATAM is set to retrofit more than 200 aircraft as part of a major update to its fleet. The carrier will invest $400 million to refresh the interiors on both long-haul and short-haul planes, with new seats and more Gogo 2Ku flying.
“Inflight connectivity doesn’t just create revenue, it could save the airline industry US$15bn a year.”
That’s a bold claim from Inmarsat and the research it commissioned from the London School of Economics (LSE). Much of the savings comes from better weather forecasting and the associated effects: reducing delays and fuel burn. Part of the forecast savings comes from predictive maintenance opportunities, allowing the plane to track its own performance and use on-board connectivity solutions to report back to headquarters when operations are less than nominal. The so-called Internet of Things for Aviation (IoT/A) has long been held up as the financial savior of the connectivity platforms, delivering the necessary financial support to justify installations. What will it take to realize the $3-46bn in annual savings the research revealed? A lot of work, and it is unclear which connectivity vendors are truly committed to that effort.
Airlines in India could be online as soon as October. The legal wrangling is approaching its final phase, after which Jet Airways and Global Eagle are expected to be the first to activate satellite-based inflight connectivity services.
FlyDubai's 737 MAX aircraft feature the carrier's newest interior (including lie-flat beds in business class). Alas, as delivered from Boeing the passenger experience of these planes was incomplete as they did not carry an inflight wifi service on board. Sharp eyes will note that some of the planes are finally sporting radomes. That's good news for passengers and for the vendor delivering the connectivity service on board.
Hawaiian Airlines will drop its service to China this October after the Golden Week celebrations. The move comes amid a growing tariff battle that significantly and adversely affects US-bound travel from China.
