This week sees the inaugural flight of the first aircraft to feature Panasonic’s new Global Communications Suite, eXConnect.
Gulf Air is the launch customer and, in this exclusive PME Interview, Mohamad El Assaad, Senior Manager, IFE and Communications, reveals the airline’s new Skyhub product.
If you’re an airline thinking about upgrading your in-flight connectivity and communications you won’t want to miss it!
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When you meet with one of those terribly nice techie people at a trade show like APEX and they start talking about satellite communications and the fact that Ku band is better than L band but what they’re really looking forward to is Ka band, do your eyes glaze over or do you just feel horribly inadequate? Well here at PME we thought it high time to come to your rescue and shed some light on these mysterious terms and how they’re going to affect airlines and inflight entertainment in the future. Steve Harvey’s special guest today is the Director of Aeronautics at Inmarsat, David Coiley…
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Combine the words in-flight entertainment and the BBC and the name instantly springs to mind is Julia Lewis. Since the mid 80’s, Julia had attended countless WAEA conferences and TV markets promoting top rated BBC shows like Top Gear and Life On Earth to airlines. Then quite suddenly earlier this year, Julia made a life changing decision to take an early retirement to spend more time with her two children, Alice & George and to catch up with friends and family. In this PME Interview Julia talks about her introduction to the BBC and to in-flight entertainment and what happened when she became trapped in an elevator with two of Britain’s top comedians!
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Mention the word “Connectivity” to an airline boss and his reaction may alternate between hope and horror. Hope that someone can provide a reliable service to keep passengers connected in the air, horror that the airline might end up making a substantial investment based on a predicted usage figure that turns out to be wildly optimistic. A UK company IMS Research has just published a report entitled ‘The Future of In-flight Wi Fi and Cellular Connectivity’ which addresses many of these concerns and contains details of those airlines that have taken the connectivity plunge and attempts to assess whether they are currently sinking or swimming. In today’s PME Interview Steve Harvey discusses the report with the author Craig Foster.
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Many IFE managers in our industry started with an airline background and, when appointed to the position, had to learn about the entertainment business. Our guest today came from a television background and had to spend his first few months researching the airline industry. Tal Kalderon is In-flight Entertainment Manager at El Al Israel Airlines and on the PME Interview he talks to Steve Harvey about some of the challenges he faced when he first started in the job nearly five years ago.
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What will await passengers in the year 2015 when they board their 787 (hopefully in service by then) or the A350? As far as in-flight entertainment and connectivity are concerned, Ken Brady is the man with, at least, some of the answers. As Chief Engineer at Thales, Ken’s job is to look to the future, to predict what products and services airlines and their passengers will expect to find on board by the middle of the decade. On this latest PME Interview, Steve Harvey talks to Ken about how the future looks from the Thales point of view…
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There are some exciting things happening these days at Turkish Airlines. A multi-million dollar advertising campaign starring Kevin Costner, a sponsorship deal with Manchester United, orders with Airbus and Boeing for 60 new aircraft, new sleek cabin interiors, a four star rating from Skytrax and the introduction of on-board connectivity. Seems like an opportune time to catch up with Elif Ergezen, Cabin and IFE Manager at Turkish Airlines.
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It’s tough to be a Customer Service Provider. Competition in the market place is intense and hard won business is often put in jeopardy when competing airlines merge or, even worse, go into chapter 11 or liquidation. Yet John Bruckman is a survivor. John’s Southern Californian based CSP company, Interact, has a healthy market share of the Central and South American market. Originally founded to source movies and TV shows, Interact has been diversifying to ensure the revenue keeps flowing. Steve Harvey talks to John Bruckman about what the future holds for Interact and CSPs in general.
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In a relatively short space of time Ink has rocketed from nowhere to become one of the world’s leading publishers of inflight magazines. Indeed their web site boasts that their in-flight magazines have reached around 800 million travelers since January 2008 as well as a whole range of media that helps companies connect with travelers – including magazines, boarding pass advertising, inflight retail publications and the Airline Retail Conference.
With offices in London, Singapore, Atlanta and New York, CEO Jeffrey O’Rourke has plenty of time to peruse in-flight magazines as he jets around the world seeking to expand his publishing empire still further. He did however take time out to talk to Steve Harvey for this exclusive PME Interview.
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Cathay Pacific has an enviable reputation for great in-flight entertainment. It’s a member of the elite ‘1,000 IFE Club’, airlines that offer their passengers more than 1,000 choices of in-flight entertainment. Now with a new order for an additional fifteen B777-300ER aircraft, in-flight connectivity is very much on the agenda. Christine Zhu is In-flight Entertainment Manager for Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd., and she joins host Steve Harvey to discuss what’s happening at Cathay Pacific.
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