Page 14 - AAA SEPTEMBER - OCTOBER 2018 Online Magazine

SKY HIGH

CONNECTIVITY

Wireless is in, when it comes to
In-Flight Entertainment

Atul Chandra

he increased availability of high speed
wi-fi on commercial aircraft has set
off a race amongst airlines to come
Tup with news ways of delivering a
In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) on their aircraft
to cater for increasingly demanding passen- percent between 2017-2025 from a base of approximately US$
gers. Globally, passengers ranked inflight 920 million in 2016. Wireless connectivity is now the norm for
Wi-Fi as the fourth most important factor almost all mainline carriers, with increased adoption of ‘Bring
that they consider when choosing an airline, Your Own Device’ (BYOD) amongst the public, as regulators are
behind airline reputation, free checked bag- increasingly accepting of greater usage of Portable Electronic
gage and extra leg room. Wireless In-Flight Devices (PEDs) on commercial flights. The emergence of W-IFE
Entertainment (W-IFE) is now all about the has been a particular boon for airlines as W-IFE solutions are
content and the extent to which it can provide not only less expensive and easier to maintain than a built-in
a personalised experience for the passenger, seat back monitor, but also allow tailormade content to be
as compared to the technology, which has provided. In-fact it would not be out of place to suggest, that
matured significantly over the past few years. in the longer term, W-IFE solutions will make built-in seat back
According to the fourth annual global Inflight monitors redundant. While the benefits of W-IFE to any mainline
Connectivity Survey published in August by carrier are apparent, many are not ready as yet to commit to
Inmarsat in association with market research connectivity and the costs involved; in addition to trying to solve
company Populus, “Two thirds of passengers the puzzle of creating an ancillary revenue stream for streaming
would be more likely to rebook with an airline content and connectivity in the air offerings. Airlines will have to
if high-quality inflight Wi-Fi is offered,” and decide on how they want to monetise W-IFE; whether directly
Inflight Wi-Fi is turning out to be a key driver from passengers or by using it to drive efficiency into the system.
in forming customer loyalty and satisfaction Bandwidth requirements continue to grow at an astounding
among today’s airline passengers, as per the pace, further compounding the issue for airlines, as they are
poll. Demand for inflight Wi-Fi is soaring and growing so rapidly that the technology struggles to keep up.
as per the survey, 65 percent of passengers
that had access to the service in the past The Future is Live
year chose to use it. However, less than half W-IFE and the availability of streaming live content, have con-
of passengers globally (45 percent) travelled tributed to a boom in airlines offering live television onboard
on flights where onboard Wi-Fi was offered.
commercial jetliners. During the month of the 2018 FIFA World
A market study on the global W-IFE market
by HTF Market Intelligence forecasted a
healthy growth rate of more than 16.40

14 | September/October 2018 www.GBP.com.sg/AAA