Page 14 - AAA JANUARY - FEBRUARY 2018 Online Magazine

A God Send for the British Airways subsidiary, ‘SilkAir Studio,’ a new way for pas-
Carriers, Passengers allow passengers to rent a tablet sengers to enjoy entertainment
The shift from embedded IFE onboard. In December last year, content in the air. Elsewhere,
screens to newer BYOD options Virgin Atlantic introduced an SWISS made free digital content
is a rare instance of both the pas- accessible and portable in-flight available to all its passengers in
senger and the carrier wanting entertainment (IFE) solution, March last year while Australian
the same thing and benefiting developed by Bluebox Aviation carrier Qantas Airways started
from it. While passengers get the Systems with input from Virgin offering customers access to
entertainment they want, when Atlantic and representatives from video and audio streaming after
they want, carriers have a real The Guide Dogs for the Blind its Wi-Fi service went live on all its
opportunity to increase ancil- Association, for visually impaired aircraft by mid-2017. Qantas has
lary revenue. There is also the passengers. linked up with ViaSat and NBN for
additional incentive of significant Not to be left behind, EasyJet has the service.
savings for airlines. partnered with Immfly to launch
Fixed IFE adds weight to the its wireless in-flight entertainment
aircraft, causing the plane to burn (IFE) service, Air Time. The service
more fuel. Embedded screens will enable passengers to stream
also require extensive cabling. audio books, eBooks, interactive
Airline IT providers say a 260- maps, language tutorials and dig-
seat Boeing 767 would be able ital retail catalogs on their own
to save as much 80 metric tons devices. Delta Air Lines and Delta
of fuel per year if the aircraft did Flight Products have joined hands
not have IFE screens. Embedded with Gogo to launch Gogo Vision
IFE systems cost about US$3m Touch, which provides wireless
to install on an aircraft, each one streaming of IFE content to seat-
costing more than US$8,000. back-mounted tablets as well as
personal electronic devices. Gogo
A Global Trend Vision Touch will be installed on

he move towards Delta’s Bombardier CS100 air-
wireless IFE and new craft, which will be delivered from
entertainment options is 2018.
Tnot limited to any region, Philippine Airlines opted to dis-
even though North America and card embedded IFE screens and
Europe seem to have taken the went for complete wireless IFE,
lead in terms of the number of allowing passengers to stream
carriers that have already made movies, music and other content
up their choice. Hawaiian Airlines to their own laptops, smartphones
and French carrier OpenSkies, and tablets. SilkAir has introduced

14 | January/February 2018 www.GBP.com.sg/AAA