Airlines fight hard to distinguish themselves from one another and the inflight entertainment (IFE) is a particularly competitive area. Full-service airlines see it as a crucial differentiator from low-cost airlines since the systems, which require millions of dollars in investment for each aircraft, are out of the reach of low cost carriers. On full service airlines, the IFE systems vary from one to another, but chances are that most have the same underlying hardware onboard – either that of Thales or Panasonic. The advent of system that you can pause (Audio and Video on Demand, or AVOD) is now being superseded by connectivity – not just the ability to log onto the internet but also make voice calls.

Wired in the friendly sky

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair have detailed plans for allowing on-board phone calls and unlimited wifi access to both its long and short haul fleets. Alex McGowan, Cathay’s head of product, says that starting from the first half of 2012 passengers will be able to access the internet for free using the onboard IFE system.

Cathay Pacific

BlackBerry and PDA messaging will be enabled, along with phone calls, and the charge for doing so will be levied on customers’ own phone bills at normal or close to normal rates. For users of iPads and laptops, a limited number of websites will be available free of charge, including those of Cathay (such as cathaypacific.com and marcopolo.com) and its partners, as well as social media services. McGowan says there will also be a hotel partner, financial services partner, credit card, perhaps a stock company and a big online retailer, all of which passengers will be able to access free of charge.

Full internet access will be enabled, with only video streaming and Voip calls such as Skype disabled in a fair use policy.

“We had a very clear idea, we wanted to address the fundamental connectivity needs,” McGowan says.

“We recognise that social media is a phenomenon we should cater for and so for free, people will be able to go aboard and put in their username and password through the seatback IFE system and pull up their Facebook page as a way of keeping in touch, and the same with Twitter or whatever system people are signed up to.”

“At the other end of the spectrum we have the corporate traveller who needs to check his emails through his  VPN [virtual private network] and surf the net for research, and they will have an unlimited ability to do so.”

How much it costs is always the first thing customers ask, and Cathay wants to make it clear and simple.

“We were clear we didn’t want to be charging people by the megabit because who knows how big that is? So we will be able to offer an hour of unlimited internet access for a certain fee, or a bundle of unlimited access for the duration of the flight,” McGowan says.

Mid-haul and long-haul flights will have their respective flat rates. They have not been released, but McGowan maintains that the pricing will be reasonable and affordable.

“We won’t be offering it for free in any part of the plane, because it’s not free to us. Our relationship with Panasonic means that we buy and install the equipment from them and they operate this service. They make money, we make a small amount from our share, but we don’t view this as an ancillary revenue stream. We view it as something we are offering, a benefit, and the cost of some of it is offset from those charges.”

Cathay Pacific and Dragonair plan to introduce inflight connectivity in the first half of 2012 and eventually extend it to their entire fleets.

So how will passengers access the internet? As on the ground, it’s depending on the device.

“We are having an optimised internet portal for each type of device on board,” McGowan explains.” If you access it through the IFE screen you will be able to see the free portal with real-time updated news, politics and business as well as accessing the social media functions.”

For iPhone or smartphone users, there is a purpose-built portal which enables internet access for a charge. For the laptop and iPad, your browser will redirect you to the Cathay portal, where there is free information from the airlines and a button for internet access. The charge for going online through an iPhone or smartphone is less as it involves a smaller volume of data.

On the controversial topic of mobile phone use onboard, McGowan says: “We’ve thought long and hard about this. A good proportion of our frequent business traveller community hate the idea and we are very sensitive to that. But other airlines offer mobile phone use, and they haven’t had problems. Emirates has 70 aircraft fitted and it has had one complaint in the last two and a half years. The ambient noise of the aircraft, the fact that people chat to each other in their seats and some very clear usage and etiquette guidelines all help control that environment.”

A code of conduct will be introduced to recommend that passengers turn their phones to vibration mode. Voice calling will be disenabled at night, and cabin crew will be trained to intercede if necessary. If more issues arise, the airline may cancel voice calling all together, while keeping the internet accessible.

cathaypacific.com

Moving towards the flying office

Emirates has confirmed that it will offer broadband internet access on one of its Airbus A380 aircraft in the first half of 2011, and will then have the capability on all subsequent aircraft deliveries.

Emirates

Patrick Brannelly, Emirates vice president, corporate communications product, publishing, digital and events says that the plan was to roll out the capability on subsequent new aircraft deliveries, and also to retro-fit it for long haul routes where there is a demand for such a product. Nevertheless, he was clear that with the size of the Emirates fleet, it would take time to complete the process and he does not want to raise passenger expectations ahead: “It only becomes something to shout about when it’s on a lot of planes.”

Emirates

Emirates has mobile phone capability on over 80 of its long haul aircraft using technology firm AeroMobile. The new internet capability will involve a switch to competitor OnAir, an Airbus/
SITA-owned company which already has proved the technology on fellow Gulf carrier Oman Air.

Described by OnAir as being “….the full suite of connectivity solutions for cabin and cockpit – GSM/GPRS and wifi internet with global coverage”, the system uses Inmarsat SwiftBroadband and allows internet access via laptops wireless, as well as the ability via mobile phones and smart phones to make and receive calls, send and receive text messages and emails, and access the internet.

On Oman Air the pricing is US$30 for full internet access, US$10 for access to a web email account, or US$5 for access to an instant messaging service. Brannelly said Emirates has not released the pricing but adds that: “It would not necessarily be as cheap as you’d get it in Starbucks”. Pricing is set by the airline, with mobile phone use appearing on a passengers’ bill and laptop use (where available) being paid for while inflight.

OnAir says that the installation of its connectivity features commencing at the beginning of 2011 will allow passengers to “…. access the internet via wifi on personal portable devices such as laptops, smartphones and mobile telephones.”

Meanwhile, using the Aeromobile system, Emirates will soon introduce BlackBerry capability on a new Boeing B777-300ER entering service.

“We will be adding GPRS data starting from next month which is just a little more bandwidth allowing people to check their email on BlackBerry and smartphones,” Brannelly says.

“The new aircraft is a B777-300ER and has the Swift Broadband avionics which is a bigger data pipe to the aircraft. We will then be rolling that out as quickly as possible, although not every aircraft will be upgraded because some aircraft will be leaving the fleet before we get to them. We will have three done pretty quickly, and then the B777 aircraft as they come.”

“Once we have GPRS working, it allows BlackBerry and instant messaging on your mobile phone and social media, “ Brannelly adds. Passengers will be able to surf the internet, but only  websites with small packets of data. It is the equivalent of a GPRS level of service and not an internet experience.

“The Swift Broadband product doesn’t necessarily gives the bandwidth, but it gives the capability, should you need it,” says Brannelly, who points out that the capability of the current KU system might soon be superseded by a new KA system that offers more bandwidth, though this is certainly a few years away from being introduced.

Brannelly admits that for business travellers, there will, however, still be a demand for full broadband access such as that on the soon-to-be-introduced A380.

“There is a definite need to help the hardcore business man who needs to open his laptop and do some serious work with good bandwidth, and that’s what we are looking at.”

On going paperless, Brannelly says that while many magazines have been removed from onboard and those remaining are using lighter paper stock, the carrier has no immediate plans to put magazines onto its IFE system.

“If you look at magazine readership on the ground on devices, it hasn’t taken off yet. Behaviour hasn’t changed. The iPad is probably the easiest to read a magazine but it’s not perfect yet, and trying to do it on a seat-back screen system has proved extremely difficult.”

As light as no paper

Like Cathay, Singapore Airlines also has the Panasonic eX2 IFE system. The airline has announced recently that it will progressively introduce electronic versions of magazines on KrisWorld, its IFE system.

Singapore Airlines

As a first step, SilverKris, SIA’s travel magazine; KrisShop, the Airline’s inflight sales catalogue; and KrisWorld, SIA’s inflight entertainment guide; will be the first publications featured digitally as part of the inflight entertainment system offerings. The initiative is part of a trial with privately held Singapore-based company SmarttPapers Aviation. The ultimate aim, the airline says, is to have a paperless cabin to reduce the amount of paper carried on board, thus reducing weight and saving fuel.

SIA aims to extend this initiative to other publications at a later date, including menu cards and the more than 100 international and local magazines currently carried systemwide. The plan is also to introduce e-newspapers and e-books on board using the same technology.

The new technology uses a SmarttPapers application, which is a patented file compression technology to transform magazine and newspaper contents into a digital format for integration into the inflight entertainment system.

The trial started on two B777-300ERs at the end of July, followed by two A380s, all of which have the latest version of KrisFlyer on, with more films, TV programmes, interactive games, audio CDs and hosted radio programming. Office productivity applications allowing passengers to work inflight even without a personal laptop were experimented with but they have since been dropped.

Another important milestone recently announced by SIA for its inflight entertainment system is a multi-million-dollar collaboration with OnAir to include a suite of onboard communication tools, allowing access to wifi internet and mobile telephony services such as SMS with GSM-compatible mobile phones, email capability through smartphones and BlackBerry, and voice calls. These services can be available as early as the first half of 2011 and will be introduced progressively on flights operated by the airline’s A380, A340-500 and B777-300ER aircraft.

The system has large, 1280 x 768 high-resolution screens across all three classes, external USB ports, as well as custom-designed premium active noise cancellation headphones from Phitek for first and business class passengers.

It’s great entertainment

British Airways’s new IFE system has appeared on the first of its B777-300ER aircraft and will gradually be introduced to some 24 aircraft over the next couple of years. It will appear on both the new B777-300ER deliveries (six of these) as well as being retro-fitted to 18 of the GMIS B777-200ER fleet (ie: the ones currently without Audio and Video On Demand).

The i5000 system from Thales is a definite improvement on the Rockwell Collins system most BA passengers will be familiar with. It has more than 230 TV programmes, 70 films and 400 CDs on demand, as well as new handsets allowing for easier gaming (these do not double up as a phone anymore).

British Airways

The screens in World Traveller and World Traveller Plus are larger, and are touch sensitive, though in Club World I found it easier to use the handset to navigate around the system.

There’s lots to like about the new system. The games are improved, and you can play against other passengers on the flight. There is a greater choice than before and the screens, even when in the same size as the existing screens as is the case in Club World, seem clearer and of a higher definition.

The plug points at the seat take UK plugs (as well as US and Euro style) and so enable charging of devices, and it is possible to plug in your camera or device and view pictures for instance on the screen, although there are file size issues with this. Certainly, when I plugged in my own camera the system was not able to show the photos.

With so much content the Quickfind number is useful, since all programmes are listed with their respective number in the guide, and the help menu is detailed so it’s difficult to get lost with the system. There are several amusing and informative documentaries about BA’s history, and lots of documentaries on sport, popular culture and so on.

The audio function has a wide choice of music, including “Top 100 albums”, although you cannot presently compile your own playlist, something I have enjoyed on Emirates and Qatar Airways, to name just two. When flying in a dimmed cabin, there is also the option of partially dimming the screen for night mode.

The navigation is easy to understand, and the coloured buttons on the handset act like shortcuts, with the green button navigating right, blue left, yellow back and red help. For those flying with children, a parental lock can be set (and once set, has to be released by the CSD).

The new B777-300ER has cameras fitted both underneath the aircraft and at the tail, and on some IFE systems, such as the Emirates A380, the views from these cameras can be shown on the screens. But Gemma Conlon, BA’s customer experience deveolpment manager, says that some people don’t want to look at those views, so BA has decided to not include them in the new IFE offering.

The new system will also be retro-fitted to the GMIS fleet, starting in Autumn 2011 in a “double line”, meaning two at a time, with a possible completion date of only six months after the start.

So what of the Rockwell Collins system which remains on the majority of the long-haul fleet?

Conlon says that Rockwell will continue to support the system, despite temporarily withdrawing from the market, and BA is talking with the company to try and improve the system, both in terms of reliability and new features. She says that reliability has improved, as shown by the thousands of detailed customer surveys that BA conducts with passengers each month.

Conlon also pointed out that the Thales system will have features added in coming months such as live text news, the ability to listen to CDs while playing one of the video games, and a more advanced moving map. Further development and additional functionality will come when new aircraft such as the B787 are introduced.

The Thales system being used, the i5000 can support connectivity, but BA is waiting to see whether there is a customer demand for it. Conlon says that BA has had “very little demand for voice communication” on the A318 flying out of London City, despite the OnAir system being capable.

But one thing is for sure: flying will only becoming more entertaining in the future.