The Business of Passenger Experience
Just how many aircraft carry inflight connectivity hardware? And which kit?? A pair of announcements this week gives greater insight into which kit is where and how the market is shifting, rapidly in some cases. Not that installation number 1000 matters more than number 999, of course. Yet somehow it does. Just a little.
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!
Interisland service in Hawaii? You betcha! Mainland gateway details? We’ve got that, too. Southwest Airlines’ plans for island service continue to trickle out and the carrier is clearly not afraid to pick a fight.
The west coast will soon see more JetBlue love. The carrier announced significant route and operational changes today, adding Blue cities and frequencies. The moves follow JetBlue’s launching a codeshare with JetSuiteX for some shorter west coast hops, also announced this week.
How to grow in a highly competitive west coast market while limiting risk, staying small, and maintaining the better than average inflight product a company is known for? JetBlue tapped into the JetSuiteX offering to add west coast routes starting in May.
Alaska Airlines is pulling the plug on Virgin America’s mid-continent hub at Dallas’s Love Field; routes to NYC’s LaGuardia and Wasington, DC’s Reagan National are being slashed later this year.
Aeromexico's first 737 MAX rolled off the assembly line at Renton last week and all indications are that, unlike the company's 737-800s, it will not be flying with the Gogo 2Ku solution.
Air Canada's 737 MAX fleet is getting inflight connectivity but it might not be what was expected. The first radome installation is complete and it looks like a new vendor may be in play, with Thales breaking in to Gogo territory.
Passengers flying across the Pacific Ocean are set for a major upgrade in inflight connectivity performance. Panasonic Avionics and Eutelsat announced this week that Eutelsat 172b is now in service, delivering a massive increase in capacity to the market, particularly for the routes aircraft use between the United States and Asia.
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.
