Alaska Airlines has initiated customer trials of a satellite based in-flight internet service on specially equipped Boeing 737 aircraft on flights between Seattle, WA and San Jose, CA. Alaska Airlines has partnered with Row44 to provide the in-flight broadband service. Passengers can use the service using any Wi-Fi enabled device such as a laptop, smartphone or portable media player. The trial is expected last for approximately 60 days after which the airline will determine the roll out schedule for commercial availability of the service to its entire fleet. Final pricing for the service has not been announced.
If you needed one more reason to make the switch to carrying an Internet enabled device this might be the reason to push you over the edge. American Airlines is testing a paperless system for mobile boarding passes. Passengers will be able to get boarding passes electronically on their Internet enabled mobile phones or PDAs via e-mail. The barcode can be scanned at TSA security checkpoints and American Airlines gates. The mobile boarding passes will initially be available for passengers on U.S. domestic flights from Chicago’s O’Hare International, Los Angeles International and John Wayne Orange County airports. If the trials are successful the mobile boarding passes may be extended to other U.S. airports.
The IEEE Spectrum blog offers a wonderful overview on modern day IFE systems.
A Flightglobal.com article reports how carriers are upgrading their IFE systems in an attempt to distinguish themselves from their competition and to boost ancillary revenues. Carriers are pushing to entertain and connect passengers by offering in-flight broadband and/or in-flight live direct broadcast video. Recent research from MultiMedia Intelligence suggests the market for in-flight broadband services is poised to grow to $936 million in passenger revenue in 2012, up from initial revenue of $6.6 million this year. Similarly, the market for in-flight live direct broadcast video is projected to grow from $87 million in 2007 to $913 million in 2012.
The annual World Airline Survey by Skytrax (carried out between August 2007 and June 2008) has annointed Emirates’ ICE system the best airline IFE for the fourth consecutive year. The Emirates system edged out Singapore Airline’s KrisWorld which came in second again. Other strong performances in the survey were again achieved by Cathay Pacific (3rd) and Virgin Atlantic (4th).
Portable media player maker digEcor announced that long time customer Pacific Blue has placed an order to upgrade to the company’s digEplayer XT. The digEplayer XT features an 8-inch TFT screen, integrated credit card reader, 60 gigabyte or larger hard drive, USB 2.0 port, and two independently controlled headphone jacks. The content provided by digEcor which will include: movies, TV, music, music videos, and video games. Pacific Blue will be renting the digEplayer XT’s to passengers exclusively on international flights from Christchurch and Auckland to Australia as well as on all flights to the Pacific Islands.
Harvard Business Review Ideacast episode 107 discusses Singapore Airlines’ strategy that is allowing them to thrive in the current downturn in the industry by focusing on the customer experience and using marketing as an investment. Harvard Business School Professor Rohit Deshpande speaks based on his HBS case study “Singapore Airlines: Customer Service Innovation.” Deshpande says that Singapore Airlines brings its customer service focus to all cabins, even if it’s making its money off of the front of the plane. “They give more frills to economy than any airline,” he says. “They were the first in-seat TVs and offered more channels than any airline. They have, even in economy, more flight attendants per passenger.”
