The Business of Passenger Experience
Sticky 2Ku antennae will cost Gogo north of $25mm to repair or replace, and that's not the only challenge new CEO Oak Thorne faced as he presented his first quarterly earnings call for the inflight connectivity provider.
United Airlines’ President Scott Kirby slipped news about a potential new domestic premium economy offering into an investor briefing this morning. What will it look like? When will it roll out? What will it replace? Of course, no answers to these important questions, but here are some interesting ideas to consider as United moves forward on this effort.
Gogo has a new CEO. In an abrupt move the company announced the replacement of Michael Small with the current largest shareholder, Oakleigh (Oak) Thorne. This should be an interesting few weeks for the company, particularly with a number of trade shows on the near-term horizon.
What will it take to deliver a truly frictionless inflight wifi connectivity experience to passengers? The newly formed Seamelss Air Alliance, backed by big names including Delta Air Lines, OneWeb, and Airbus, hopes to develop standards and processes that make the connection and billing process flow smoothly throughout the aviation connectivity ecosystem. That could be a huge win if it works.
What good is having an inflight wifi connectivity product if no one is using it? Gogo sits flush with satellite capacity and is pushing to increase take rates (and revenue) up dramatically on its platform.
More planes are flying with wifi than ever before. Added bonus: It is generally more useful and cheaper, too! Some great data out in the 2018 edition of the Routehappy wifi report, released this week.
Post-purchase upselling to drive ancillary revenue is big business for Delta Air Lines and poised to grow. Adding frequent flyer points to the mix is part of that plan, with significant potential upside for passengers and the carrier.
Korean Air Lines took home an early Christmas present today, with its first CSeries delivery from Bombardier. The carrier is the third to fly the CS300 and introduces a few new features on board to improve the passenger experience.
Market “segmentation” revenue is growing faster than ever at Delta and the carrier plans to maintain that pace. Basic Economy on a global scale is the next step on that path.
Put another way: Get ready to pay more for less everywhere you fly.
Delta and Airbus announced a deal today for at least 100 new A321neo aircraft to be delivered in the first half of the next decade. And, believe it or not, the most significant factor in that decision might not be the planes.
