Two weeks ago, Inmarsat unveiled its plans for Orchestra, a new communications network. According to the company’s press release, it will seamlessly integrate GEO, LEO and terrestrial 5G for mobility applications. My colleagues, Joshua Flood and Craig Foster, recently published their own thoughts on the implications of Inmarsat Orchestra for the maritime and business aviation…
Following on from its unveiling of ORCHESTRA a couple of weeks ago, Inmarsat yesterday revealed a key component of the new multi-layer solution, an enhanced L-band network called ELERA. Given its heavy focus on Ka-band over the last few years and the fact that ORCHESTRA also represents the firm’s first move into the low-earth orbit…
Covid-19 has had a remarkable impact on consumer behaviours. In this article, we consider the impact of accelerating digital trends on the IFC Business Model. Can airlines pursue a simple approach to in-flight connectivity? Background A pandemic-fueled 18 months has given rise to an undeniable acceleration in the way people go about their daily lives.…
In-flight duty free revenue has been in decline for some time with a number of high-profile airlines such as KLM, American Airlines and Qantas having ditched the service in recent years. In a study conducted by the Duty-Free World Council and published by APEX, researchers found in-flight sales fell from 7.3 per cent of total…
A new report from award-winning provider of market intelligence services, Valour Consultancy, suggests that wireless in-flight entertainment (W-IFE) will be installed on almost three-quarters of the global narrow-body fleet by 2030, up from just over a third today. The report, “The Future of in-Flight Entertainment – 2021 Edition,” shows that although wireless in-flight entertainment installs…
It was refreshing to hear Mark Cheyney, Virgin Atlantic’s IFEC Development Manager, talk about the carrier’s in-flight connectivity (IFC) strategy during a recent Global Connected Aircraft podcast. He estimated that rolling out free Wi-Fi will take the airline years, as opposed to months, a statement devoid of marketing spiel. Instead, it reflected awareness of the…
Global digital advertising spend in 2020 reached US$332 billion and was set to overtake traditional, non-digital ad spend for the first time. With this in mind, it may come as a surprise that in-flight digital advertising is far from lucrative. Glass half empty With fill rates currently hovering around just 30% for video adverts and…
As an extension to our IFEC data intelligence services, we are pleased to reveal details of enhancements to our quarterly in-flight entertainment and in-flight connectivity trackers. Background In 2016, to supplement our in-depth annual deep dive into the in-flight connectivity (IFC) market, Valour Consultancy launched a quarterly tracker product designed to keep those with a…
Many reading this will be well aware of how important the North America region has been in the context of IFC. Carriers in the region were amongst the early adopters of IFC, globally, aided by the launch of Gogo’s Air-to-Ground network, which at one point served more than 2,600 aircraft. In true chicken and egg…
Air travel has been massively impacted and disrupted in the past six months. Until Covid-19 hit, the biggest challenge facing airport operators and airlines was how to cope with an ever-increasing demand for air travel and the limited infrastructure to support it. Now, they are scrambling for survival as the industry has been turned on…
One of the first questions we were asked once the enormity of the COVID-19 situation became apparent was its likely impact on the in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry. Indeed, one of the messages we received from a well-respected name in the industry back in March was that he suspected “traditional IFE would not bounce back”. At…
A new report predicts strong take-up of in-flight connectivity (IFC) systems on business aircraft over the next ten years. According to Valour Consultancy, an award-winning provider of market intelligence services, the number of IFC terminals installed on business jets will rise to almost 32,000 in 2029 – up from 20,689 at the end of 2019.…