Flights in the Great White North will be a bit more entertaining this winter. Global Eagle announced Canadian North Airlines as the launch customer for its Airconnect Go portable streaming IFE solution. Installations will begin
inflight entertainment
PaxEx Premium: Panasonic’s Pivot
Panasonic Avionics Corporation (PAC) and Inmarsat are poised to reshape the inflight connectivity world with a landmark deal. The ten year strategic collaboration project will see PAC sell Inmarsat's Ka-band GX connectivity solution while Inmarsat bundles some of PAC's data analytics and services offerings into its sales efforts. Is this the consolidation the market so desperately craves?
PaxEx Premium: Spirit’s wifi installs begin
Work on the first Spirit Airlines aircraft to receive its Thales-supplied inflight wifi connectivity hardware is underway. Installation efforts started this week at an MRO with Thales overseeing the work.
PaxEx Premium: Another connectivity split fleet
Chalk up another split fleet for inflight connectivity. The latest intelligence in to PaxEx.Aero suggests another A350 operator will add a new vendor to its IFC roster.
Avant, GX, Super Diamond for the new Hong Kong Airlines A350
Hong Kong Airlines celebrated the delivery of a new tranche of A350s this week, bringing new inflight products to the carrier. The airline’s early A350 deliveries were originally built for Azul; the current set were meant for HK Airlines all along. That means different seats, entertainment systems and inflight connectivity kit on board.
Is it time for Gogo to split?
Is Gogo worth more split in half rather than as a single company? Since the management transition earlier this year that idea has been floated more than once. CEO Oakleigh Thorne suggested that either the Business or Commercial Aviation halves should be worth more than the current market cap. He's also suggested that splitting the company along those lines would be a relatively easy transaction to pull off, with BizAv owning the ATG network and Commercial the satellite services. With an impending deadline to refinance the company's debt it seems like such a move could solve a lot of the problems. We know that various suitors have put offers on the table for all or part of the company and that those are being evaluated by the Board of Directors. Here's how one of them could play out.
Growing against flat rate contracts: Global Eagle’s plan
Growth is all but assured in the inflight connectivity market. Global Eagle is among the operators seeking the upside potential in its its revenue base and margins. But the company takes a slightly different approach to generating service revenue compared to others.
Content is part of the plan. Premium services are part of the plan. Convergence of the entire passenger experience matters greatly. And Chief Commercial Officer Per Norén is confident that the approach can save the company money on the bandwidth side, deliver a better and more profitable offering for airlines and give passengers the content they really want.
Revenue per aircraft is flat right now, but the Norén has big ideas on how to change that. Everyone wins, assuming it all works.
SpiceJet launches streaming IFE solution fleet-wide
More than a year after committing to the platform SpiceJet rolled out its inflight entertainment offering today. The BYOD streaming solution, branded SpicEngage, offers, video content, games, reading options and more. Passengers access the system using their own mobile devices. The system, based on Lufthansa Systems’ BoardConnect platform is available fleet-wide, covering both 737 and Q400 aircraft.
Caribbean Airlines gives IFE another go
Caribbean Airlines passengers will soon have an inflight entertainment option available. Streaming “BYOD” service from Bluebox will launch on 1 August 2018.
AirBaltic commits to CS300 fleet growth
AirBaltic loves its CSeries jets. The Latvian carrier is set to dramatically grow that fleet. Today’s deal with Bombardier, inked just over one year since the first CS300 arrived in Riga, adds at least 30 more of the type to its fleet.









