PaxEx.Aero

The Business of Passenger Experience

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PaxEx Premium: LEO connectivity testing reaches new heights

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Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations promise higher capacity and lower latency for connections. They also bring significant challenges, mostly owing to far more frequent satellite switching to maintain a connection. Add in an airplane moving though the sky and the complexity increases further. Multiple vendors are now moving through the testing process, with plans to deliver functional solutions as early as 2019, well ahead of the satellite constellations being ready for such connections.

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PaxEx Premium: Does Spirit have a secret for selling wifi?

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Outgoing Spirit Airlines CEO Bob Fornaro is no stranger to the inflight connectivity world, even if his current airline is a late adopter of such services. Fornaro oversaw the fleet-wide deployment of connectivity at AirTran. He saw the value it could deliver and the pains that poor performance and limited availability caused for passengers and the airline. Now he wants to bring a new model to market and lead the connected ULCC revolution, starting with the Thales kit installed on his company's fleet. Will this secret sauce work?

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PaxEx Premium: Digging deeper on the Inmarsat/Panasonic strategic partnership

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After ten months of negotiations Inmarsat and Panasonic Avionics unveiled a strategic partnership late last month. The news hit just prior to APEX EXPO, a major trade show where executives from both companies fielded questions. Answers were provided but uncertainty remains about exactly what the new partnership will deliver on some fronts.

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PaxEx Premium: Basic Connectivity, because passengers really do want it

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It was called "Kiteline" and it was going to revolutionize the inflight passenger experience. A light weight connectivity solution with visions of delivering core functionality, the Kiteline concept is now being emulated by Lufthansa Systems, Iridium, AirFi, fflya and more. And, unlike Kiteline's failure nearly a decade ago, these solutions are now (finally) taking flight.

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PaxEx Premium: Panasonic’s Pivot

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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?

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PaxEx Premium: Spirit’s wifi installs begin

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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.

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PaxEx Premium: Another connectivity split fleet

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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.

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Is it time for Gogo to split?

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Is Gogo worth more split in half rather than as a single company? Since the management transition earlier this year that idea has been floated more than once. CEO Oakleigh Thorne suggested that either the Business or Commercial Aviation halves should be worth more than the current market cap. He's also suggested that splitting the company along those lines would be a relatively easy transaction to pull off, with BizAv owning the ATG network and Commercial the satellite services. With an impending deadline to refinance the company's debt it seems like such a move could solve a lot of the problems. We know that various suitors have put offers on the table for all or part of the company and that those are being evaluated by the Board of Directors. Here's how one of them could play out.

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Radome tells a tale of vendor diversity

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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.

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Connecting another batch of MAX: flyDubai’s radomes spotted

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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.

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