PaxEx Update: 2 August 2019

Welcome to PaxEx Update, bringing you the top airline passenger experience headlines for the week ending July 26, 2019.

After months of delays Aer Lingus collected its first A321LR last week and is already pressing it into service. The inaugural flight to Bradley Airport outside Hartford, Connecticut flies today. The plane features the Thompson Vantage seat in business class, along with Panasonic Avionics IFE and WiFi.

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United Airlines made a strategic equity investment in airport biometrics company CLEAR this week. The carrier will add CLEAR’s screening at its Newark and Houston hubs and help it get in to O’Hare. Elites get a discount on membership, too.

Delta Air Lines is expanding the entertainment selections on its 700+ aircraft that include embedded IFE screens. The carrier announced a partnership with Hulu to feature a selection of original content will be available on board; no wifi streaming plan required.

Low Earth Orbit satellites promise to change the inflight connectivity world and a couple suppliers made progress on that front this week. Canada’s Telesat scored a major commitment from the national government to support development of its LEO network and ongoing subscription revenues. Kepler’s LEO network probably won’t matter much for inflight connectivity, but getting it linked with Kymeta’s phased array antenna put another set of players into the market.

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Finally, some drama in the connectivity space as the deal for Mahata to install Inmarsat GX WiFi on the Garuda group’s fleet fell apart. The country’s Audit Board instructed the carrier to terminate the contract following accounting irregularities even though the first aircraft is active.

You can keep up with these stories and more all week long at PaxEx.Aero. Have a great trip!