Developing new offerings is a delicate balance of concepts and planning, pressed against the reality of passenger behavior. Yes, IFC providers have test aircraft available for their newest systems. Airline employees can also go fly installed solutions on competitors, getting a real-world experience of the service. But until that well-planned, well-tested concept gets out into the real world and exposed to passengers it is difficult to know what will really happen.
Fresh on the heels of Air Canada announcing its plans for fast, free Wi-Fi across the fleet, PaxEx.Aero sat down with Norman Haughton, Director of In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity Product and Analytics, to talk about hitting this milestone and what it means for the carrier’s IFE/C plans moving forward.
Air Canada decided to have passengers participate in that testing to better understand how the systems would be used and how they would perform under load. In October 2023 an updated A321 (C-GITU) took flight with Intelsat‘s 2Ku connectivity platform freshly installed. It also carries a refreshed entertainment system on board, and two HD exterior cameras on board, allowing passengers to watch the flight’s progress.
That plane has also been offering free Wi-Fi on board, allowing the carrier to monitor take rates, bandwidth consumption, passenger satisfaction, and overall system reliability. Haughton shares that Air Canada is “Blown away with the results, over the moon and elated to get this out” to the reset of the fleet. He continued, “Let’s get free Wi Fi out there. Let’s have the best in flight entertainment within our region, the top experience for IFE/C in the world. That’s our aim. And I think we’re getting really, really close, if not already there.”
IFE is here to stay, or even grow
Many IFC vendors, trying to assuage airline concerns about the cost of converting to “fast and free,” have suggested that an open pipe could replace the airline’s IFE solution on board. After all, airlines spend a lot of money providing content on board; why not shift that spend to the connectivity and make passengers even happier?
Haughton, however, suggests that passengers are not quite ready to make that move, despite what they might say in surveys. “Our flying lab is about more than just how consumers use the internet on board, it also looks at how they’re using other products. And what we’re seeing in flight is that entertainment consumption, on average, is actually up on the aircraft that has full, fast, free Wi-Fi. High take rates are correlating to high consumption of seat back content.”
Ultimately for Air Canada this means a redoubling of its IFE commitment. “We’re going to keep investing in IFE,” Haughton confirms. “It is incredibly important to our customers and to us. And we think Wi-Fi is additive.”
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What’s next?
With just five months until go-live Air Canada has plenty to keep it busy going forward. “We can’t take our foot off the gas,” Haughton explained. “We have to work closely with our partners to ensure that May timeline, not just meeting hardware milestones, but quality of service, communications, there’s a whole package to develop for Day One.”
And once the fast and free service is live? “You’ll see more testing and learning on the open market.” Even with the flying testbed, Air Canada knows there’s more to discover as millions of passengers tap in to the system.
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