The Business of Passenger Experience
A decade of bribery and illicit payments came to an abrupt end a couple years ago. Now Panasonic Avionics is looking to move on. The company settled its case with the US Department of Justice and SEC, paying massive fines but avoiding further issues.
Panasonic Avionics is moving its innovation closer to its airline customers. The company is setting up centers around the globe to help develop new ideas and services that sit atop the IFE/C hardware flying on thousands of customer aircraft today.
European charter specialist Hi Fly really is going to operate the A380. The company confirmed today that it will have the 471-seat aircraft in its fleet by mid-year. And it should be a pretty nice ride, too.
Airline passengers in China and across Asia will soon have access to significantly more inflight wifi connectivity bandwith. Panasonic Avionics and APSATCOM announced the first “XTS” ultra-high speed Ku-band satellte, set to launch in early 2019.
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.
This week’s edition of “What’s under that radome?” comes to us from Toulouse, where Iberia’s first A350-900 broke cover. The carrier shared a few photos on Twitter and the aircraft is sporting a line-fit radome on the fuselage.
Gogo is the first inflight connectivity provider to pass data on the SES-15 Ku-band satellite. That’s great news for passengers, and it should get even better soon as others join that party.
Virgin Atlantic’s newest used plane features the seats and entertainment system the carrier’s passengers have come to know and love. But it is missing the newest amenity – inflight wifi connectivity – and that’s unlikely to change.
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.
Interjet is the latest airline to add inflight wifi to its fleet. The carrier took delivery of its first A321neo last week and with that adds Ku-band connectivity from Panasonic Avionics to the inflight amenities on offer.
