With delivery of its first A321neo last week Middle East Airlines (MEA) launches a new generation of inflight services. The carrier’s nine A321neo aircraft include personal seat-back entertainment screens and will be the airline’s first ever to offer inflight wifi connectivity on board. Panasonic Avionics was selected to provide these services.
inflight entertainment
Ka-band inflight connectivity goes live in China
New product launches are rare and a successful one in China even more so. But Qingdao Airlines now has Ka-band inflight connectivity online, powered by China Satcom, FTS and Gilat.
Global Eagle’s cash crunch
The numbers for Global Eagle’s Q1 are not good. And with a narrow margin of liquidity before it is considered in default on its debt, the timing is tight.
Tap to pee: PXCom launches digital lavatory queuing option
A number of companies have teased the idea of virtual queue management for lavatory access to reduce passenger movement on board. Now PXCom delivers.
Burrana launches RISE, a new inflight entertainment (and more) platform
Launching an entirely new inflight entertainment platform is no small task. Doing in the face of a massive market retrenchment and global budget cuts adds to the difficulty. But Burrana is up to the challenge, introducing its RISE platform this week, with plans to deliver a new approach to the single-aisle market that is faster, lighter, and less expensive than the competition.
Retail inMotion, Bluebox team up for touch-free inflight sales
Reducing contact between crew and customers is good for safety but bad for inflight ancillary revenue sales. A new partnership between Retail inMotion and Bluebox hopes to bridge that gap.
Don’t change the channel: Live TV grounded as airlines cut costs
Survey data and inflight behavior both suggest strong demand for live television on board. But a couple airlines are cutting the service, at least temporarily. And it is not just about saving money on the subscription costs.
Astronics feels the pain of production, retrofit slowdowns
As a key supplier of systems for commercial aircraft production and retrofit work it is no surprise that Astronics will see a significant hit to its revenue in 2020. The company is not providing formal guidance, but in its quarterly earnings call this week CEO Peter Gundermann spoke to some of the numbers and just how bad the situation looks.
American picks Viasat for wifi on newest 787s
There was little doubt of the news, but also no formal acknowledgement until now. American Airlines finally confirmed that its newest 787-8 aircraft will fly with the Viasat inflight connectivity solution.
Panasonic Avionics implements furloughs to address slowing business
The aviation industry is in turmoil. As airlines slash spending the supplier network is scrambling to survive. For many of these companies staff furloughs is the name of the game. Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC) is the latest in the IFEC sector to implement such moves.