The Business of Passenger Experience
JetBlue is tweaking its inflight connectivity plans, securing its relationship with ViaSat while pushing Thales out as an integrator. That's mostly good news, unless you're Thales.
JetBlue's A320 fleet upgrade will be a little different than initially announced, mostly in a good way. Newer entertainment and connectivity solutions are now (officially) part of the plan.
Is it the ultimate surveillance scenario or a step forward in the passenger experience? Or maybe a little bit of both?? Vendors are cooperating today to deliver integrated biometrics in the inflight entertainment system, tying together a camera embedded in the screen with connectivity to various other platforms that can act on the data.
Consolidation is coming in the cabin components industry with Astronics set to acquire Telefonix for $104mm in cash. The two companies product lines are largely complementary, covering in-seat power, passenger service units, seat actuators, inflight connectivity components and more.
EAN, Europe’s newest inflight connectivity platform, took a major step forward as Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom announce completion of the first test flight(s) of the system. The countries overflown during the tests are also interesting given some of the regulatory and legal challenges the program faces.
Can a slow inflight internet connection deliver real passenger benefits? In many cases it is better than nothing and Lufthansa Systems is talking about ways to integrate such into a low-cost solution for airlines.
Air New Zealand is finally sporting an inflight connectivity radome on one of its aircraft. Ship ZK-OKS, a 777-300ER, returned to service last week after a month in Singapore where the Inmarsat Global Xpress (“GX”) kit was installed. The carrier announced last December that it will fit its entire fleet with the GX service.
Air Europa’s short-haul passengers are getting an IFE upgrade next year, thanks to BoardConnect from Lufthansa Systems. The latest iteration of the platform includes plenty of new features, but getting rid of the battery could prove a tipping point for the product.
Got Ka? That’s the question Global Eagle was asking during the recent APEX EXPO show while demonstrating the latest high-speed inflight connectivity solution it has on offer. Come along for the ride as I put the system through its paces.
Netflix wants you to have free wifi on your next flight. That’s the only way it figures you’ll use your Netflix service on board. The catch (of course there is one) is that Netflix doesn’t want to be the one paying for that bandwidth. And it doesn’t really care who is, so long as it gets credit for making your flight better.
