The Business of Passenger Experience
Commercial success in the inflight connectivity business is anything but easy. That isn't stopping newcomers from trying. Saudi Arabia's Taqnia Space group launched the UON offering earlier this month and it has potential. But like other offerings in the market there are questions about how well it can scale up to meet demand (both bandwidth and profits).
How to grow in a highly competitive west coast market while limiting risk, staying small, and maintaining the better than average inflight product a company is known for? JetBlue tapped into the JetSuiteX offering to add west coast routes starting in May.
Alaska Airlines is pulling the plug on Virgin America’s mid-continent hub at Dallas’s Love Field; routes to NYC’s LaGuardia and Wasington, DC’s Reagan National are being slashed later this year.
Following the unexpected transition to a new CEO further management shakeup is hardly unexpected. Gogo took that step this week, announcing three new senior leadership positions in the company.
The Skyrider is back. After disappearing for a couple years the infamous saddle seat returned at AIX 2018, brighter than ever. And just as unlikely to ever be on your airplane.
Qatar Airways is the latest airline to bring gate-to-gate connectivity online. Regulatory changes are now approved allowing the service to operate. The next couple years of growing passenger demand with minimal spare capacity should be interesting to watch play out.
Can Qantas squeeze a dozen(ish) more seats in its A380s without hurting the passenger experience? The Airbus A380 Cabin-Flex program aims to deliver precisely that, with retrofits starting in mid-2019. Here’s how it will work…
Passenger want long flights in economy class to be more comfortable. Airlines want more money from passengers. Surely a bunk beds option meets that need. And it probably will eventually. Just not this version, at least not yet. And probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.
Is Google poised to launch an inflight internet service? The company is rumored to be looking at a Nokia division to pick up the necessary hardware for such. Scratch beneath the surface, however, and more viable use cases emerge.
Peace is possible between the airlines and GDS platforms! Air France/KLM and Amedeus agreed to waive distribution fees in some cases, benefiting passengers in the near term. But it is the longer term plans around NDC content distribution that hold real potential for an improved passenger experience.
