New seats, a new entertainment system, new galleys, more wifi and even a mild STFU to a Wall Street analyst. Yup, just another quarter on the JetBlue earnings call.
IFE
Lufthansa’s New Connectivity Play: Many Questions Remain
Lufthansa announced plans to fit its narrow-body fleet with wifi starting in 2016. The announcement was not unexpected but it leaves some questions behind, including about the timing and reasoning for the stop-gap interim solution being used along the way.
JetBlue & MLB: Play Ball
With tons of bandwidth available through its satellite wifi connection JetBlue is upping the content library, adding MLB.tv live streaming on all its flights.
Friday Flyday: Chasing the Sunset Across America
It was a bit of a mess to get started thanks to PANYNJ and the JFK AirTrain. But we made the flight and it was a spectacular one. I love chasing the sun west across the globe. We caught up just in time.
Getting Giddy about Gogo GTO
Gogo took a big step towards introducing its new high-speed GTO and 2Ku satellite services this week. Passengers will (relatively) soon see a big jump in the bandwidth available on board.
Bugs and quirks day one: American’s 787 in-flight entertainment + connectivity
American Airlines’ latest and greatest planes have in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) systems to match. Alas, they weren’t working so well on day one of service but hopefully those bugs are worked out quickly.
Stream from the cloud while in the clouds!
JetBlue and Amazon Prime are teaming up to offer streaming media for free while in flight. That’s a bold move given bandwidth costs but it just might work out given the changes in the economics the industry is experiencing.
Pay per byte coming to more in-flight internet plans
The days of flat-rate pricing for in-flight internet may be coming to a close. Panasonic is shifting to megabyte packages rather than per flight offerings as it seeks to make the experience more “fair” for all consumers. At least that’s what they’re saying.
Have they all given up hope for the economy cabin??
It is no secret that economy class cabins have been squeezed ever tighter in recent years. Bad news: Doesn’t seem that’s going to change any time soon. When even the designers and “blue sky” thinkers have given up hope it is hard to remain too optimistic.
JetBlue’s FlyFi Set to Remain Free
The fastest internet in the sky will remain free for customers as JetBlue re-ups its commitment to keep its FlyFi product fee-free. Alas, the fitting of the smaller E190 planes is delayed a bit, but still expected to complete within a year.