The Business of Passenger Experience
When senior airline executives are willing to trash their vendors in public that's usually bad news for everyone involved. Welcome to the inflight connectivity world, where airlines are almost as unhappy as the passengers struggling to stay online in the sky. Alas, only part of that frustration is grounded in reality.
As Alaska Airilnes shifts its aircraft to Gogo's 2Ku offering passengers will see increased bandwidth, hopefully driving an increase in the number online. But a change in the way the product is priced could throw a wrench in those plans.
Processing more aircraft performance data faster means cost savings for airlines and a better ride for passengers. Norwegian and Astronics teamed up to deliver content to pilots’ tablets through a streaming solution that improves data processing both in real-time and over the long term. It also demonstrates a potential weakness in long-bandied plans for broader use of inflight wifi connectivity for aircraft operations data.
Southwest Airlines’ plans to grow in to the Hawaiian islands are no secret, but they’re also not the only destinations further afield the company is considering. Among the possibilities: Canada!
United is moving around its east coast operations, shifting more connections to Dulles and away from Newark. Can the NYC-area hub hold up under the new schedule load? And will travelers really flock to the “better” connection opportunities on CRJ-200s??
Passengers still must wait a couple years, but Emirates is finally set to introduce a premium economy cabin on its A380 fleet. Sir Tim Clark offers up a few details on the effort in a recent podcast episode.
It was a busy week for United Airlines where the biggest news may have been lost in the shuffle. It isn’t as sexy as lie-flat seating but the new Aspire economy class seats now flying deliver some real improvements for passengers. And one significant drawback, too.
Qatar Airways is the latest airline to bring gate-to-gate connectivity online. Regulatory changes are now approved allowing the service to operate. The next couple years of growing passenger demand with minimal spare capacity should be interesting to watch play out.
Passenger want long flights in economy class to be more comfortable. Airlines want more money from passengers. Surely a bunk beds option meets that need. And it probably will eventually. Just not this version, at least not yet. And probably not for the reasons you’re thinking.
American’s move to the 787 for its fleet refresh is a big win for Boeing and a blow to the A330neo program. But does it also pose challenges for Boeing’s NMA?
