Everhub™ enables passengers to engage with entertainment, on-board retail, and destination services via their mobile device or laptop. Via these devices, the passengers will be able to stream movies and audio files, read magazines and newspapers, play games, with children’s movies also available…… In the initial phase, Inflight Dublin will be offering the latest content, including movies, TV, Audio, Games, Magazines and Newspapers, provided in different languages. The second phase will include the rollout of the extended service offering further content such as destination services, ground transportation services, and retail services.

John White, Inflight Dublin’s CEO, adds: “This is our first Everhub™ partnership in Central Europe and we couldn’t be more excited! Smartwings’s continuous dedication to elevating passenger experience sits accordingly with our strategic vision on bringing IFE to every airborne passenger.” Everhub™ launched onboard Smartwings on selected flights from 24^th of November 2017.

Challenge

What was the requirement identified by Aer Lingus? Aer Lingus is the flag carrier airline of Ireland and the second-largest airline in Ireland. It currently serves more than 91 destinations across Europe, Africa and North America. Aer Lingus is one of our most valued clients and we are proud to have developed a strong relationship which we’ve established over the past 25 years. One of the key requirements that Aer Lingus identified in 2015 was the enhancement of the guest journey, loyalty and customer satisfaction. Based on the 2014 VOG results:

• Voice of guests results indicated static IFE customer satisfaction
• Results suggested there was insufficient choice for passengers
• Frequent flyers were dissatisfied with the limited, repetitive choice due to route specific content
• Inflight Dublin was tasked to come up with an IFE improvement strategy to improve the static customer satisfaction trends

Solution

How did we help Aer Lingus to overturn the situation?

Inflight Dublin carried out a comprehensive benchmarking exercise that compared Aer Lingus’ IFE offering against its key competitors as well as selected “best in class”. The key results showed a broad variety of content being deployed for cross-tier airlines (including more than 1500 movie channels, 100 radio channels, 100’s of CDs & audiobooks, TV shows and games).

Understanding Aer Lingus IFE positioning served as a starting point to determine the necessary next steps. Although Aer Lingus maintained a strong TV selection, our findings showed there was an opportunity to improve the guest experience by providing a more enhanced, differentiated movie offering.

After a detailed analysis and running numerous scenarios, Inflight Dublin proposed two recommendations (taking budget into consideration) that we felt would align Aer Lingus’ offering with that of other 4-Star airlines.

• Option 01:  20 blockbusters each direction, 25 Classic Movies both directions, 5 boxsets and 54 TV Shows
• Option 02:  24 blockbusters each direction, 24 Classic Movies both directions, 6 boxsets and 54 TV Shows

Inflight Dublin felt that there was a number of benefits to Aer Lingus based on our findings and resulting recommendations, including:

• Improved Guest experience through providing an enhanced content offering that will result in greater VOG results;
• A more competitive and differentiated movie selection aligning EI’s service with that of other 4 Star airlines;
• Encourage Guest interaction and feedback through innovative content plans that will help revolutionise Guest experience;
• Synergise marketing and promotional campaigns using our innovative content calendar; and
• Enhance efficiency on a cycle-by-cycle basis through our EI specific content plan.

Outcome

What were the resulting benefits to Aer Lingus?

The results of our strategy were extremely positive;  passengers who thought the offering was excellent / very good increased by over 15% (the highest it has been in three years) and passengers who thought the offering was fair / poor decreased by over 10% (the lowest it’s been in three years). In summary, this initiative resulted in immediate benefits to Aer Lingus and had a very positive impact on its Guests experience KPI’s. We at Inflight Dublin are extremely proud to have helped Aer Lingus develop its inflight entertainment to one that competes strongly with other four, and five star airlines.

Challenge

Air Mauritius is the flag carrier airline of Mauritius and it’s the fourth largest carrier in Africa.  With flights to and from Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa, Air Mauritius now serves 24 regional and international destinations.

Air Mauritius is committed to deliver the “7 step plan”, set back in 2012. One of the key steps is improving overall service quality and the passenger experience that would be recognised by the industry. In order to do that, a requirement for the “IFE system with a difference” was made. This new IFE offering would provide the following:

• Unique selection of eclectic content, including the latest blockbusters  & international movies, TV shows , audio collections in adherence to their budget for the whole fleet of 10 aircraft
• Range of Exclusive Content that would follow an individual content strategy suggested by the CSP provider
• Improved GUI design for the passengers that is intuitive and user-friendly    

Based on the above criteria and a promise of a 4-star Skytrax status within a year, Inflight Dublin was selected in 2013 as the new CSP.

Solution

How did we help Air Mauritius to achieve 4 star status?

Inflight Dublin was awarded the CSP contract in April 2013. The contract commenced from July 2013 and has been successfully deployed for the past 4 years. At the beginning of the process, we have benchmarked Air Mauritius competitors’ IFE offering and provided an overall content strategy.

At the time, Air Mauritius had 3 IFE systems: Pac 3Ki VOD, Hi8 Analogue and ASL XPI DMR, which replaced VHS tapes. As an experienced CSP provider, we’ve delivered on all these systems without any delays, complying with all the deadlines provided by integrators.

Our dedicated account manager implemented an innovative content strategy that included the development of Air Mauritius Movie offerings – increased number of Hollywood Blockbusters and Classic films available on board, as well as the addition of a new International TV programming including French and Chinese comedy.

Inflight Dublin’s proposed solution for the XP1 route configuration allowed for programming to be based on specific routes and languages, providing the same offering as VOD system. The solution was very well received by the airline and further personalised the content delivery onboard.

By switching to a more powerful format, content quality has substantially increased.    

Further IFE highlights that cemented the Air Mauritius 4 star status include expansion of the AOD library, an introduction of the XP1 system (50% increased content on Classic aircraft) and delivery of the anticipated Web GUI.    

How did Air Mauritius content evolve over the years?

Air Mauritius content was significantly increased after the first cycle and continued in this trend for the past 4 years. Inflight Dublin currently provides the following content for Air Mauritius:

•  Blockbuster movies (Hollywood)
• International Titles
• French & Chinese TV
• TV comedy & Drama boxsets
• Kids bundle of movies and TV
• Podcasts and destination videos
• Exclusive content such as Fairdeal Bollywood movies

Outcome

Inflight Dublin has delivered on the promise to Air Mauritius to improve their Skytrax ratings to 4 stars within a year. It was a joint effort of the leading CSP provider, and Air Mauritius who put their trust in our capable hands and let us transform the inflight passenger experience.

Challenge:

What was the requirement identified by Sky Prime? Sky Prime is a well-established private aviation service provider (headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) serving many high profile clients and VVIP in the Middle East region and worldwide. Sky Prime provides top of the range private flight service and the current fleet consists of luxurious Airbus fleet (A319, A340, A320, A330, A340-200), Gulfstream private jets, spacious Phenom and Legacy Embraer aircraft. As a high-end aviation services provider, Sky Prime basic services offering includes inflight connectivity (in high demand currently), telephones, TV, games, and DVD. Airline wished to add to their sophisticated service for their valued passengers by giving them a bespoke experience in providing them with personal pre-loaded devices with high-quality entertainment. Sky Prime didn’t have any prior IFE onboard. This requirement represents Sky Prime’s commitment to a luxurious, seamless passenger experience, where relax and top notch inflight service play a pivotal role. This new IFE system will have the following:

1. Unique selection of eclectic content, including the latest Hollywood and Arabic Movies, TV shows, international audio albums and games on their whole fleet
2. Range of personalised local content that would follow an individual content strategy
3. All content will be provided on pre-loaded iPads, that will be distributed to the passengers as they are boarding the aircraft

Priding on our reactive approach and quick turnaround times, Sky Prime’s requirement for a complex IFE solution that could be deployed and operational in a very limited timeframe didn’t cause any problems.

Solution

Implementation of Sky Prime pre-loaded IFE solution   As part of their in-flight service, Sky Prime sought to complement their internet connectivity service with an Inflight Entertainment offering. Inflight Dublin has agreed to exclusively supply Inflight Entertainment products to be used on the passenger entertainment systems onboard Sky Prime’s aircraft. The client required high quality hardware that could be managed by Sky Prime staff on the ground and handed out to passengers in-flight. Inflight Dublin developed a high-end hardware, software, media and support service for Sky Prime. Leveraging the latest iPad pro’s, we developed a secure, Hollywood approved, mobile application. This application was expertly aligned with Sky Prime’s brand guidelines and was configured with the latest Movies, TV Shows, Music, and Games. One of the interesting differentiators was also an age restriction feature within the application to ensure children could not access certain content. Inflight Dublin also sourced the latest sync & charge carts to allow Sky Prime to easily manage and update the iPads in Riyadh.

Outcome

We’ve managed to turn this project around within 2 months, with the provision of more than 400 iPads for the whole fleet, installations, and content upload. Sky Prime now have a robust IFE offering, with expert ground support, that showcases their brand and emphasises their high-quality service to passengers. Moreover, this IFE solution provides the balanced inflight experience Sky Prime were seeking. Passengers now have access to the latest available entertainment via the iPads, whilst also having internet access for key communication activities, such as email and social media.

Challenge

What was the requirement identified by PrivatAir? PrivatAir is a Geneva-based business jet operator who delivers the highest quality inflight service to its customers. PrivatAir has been in operation for over 40 years, employs 400 people and has operating bases in Frankfurt (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland) and Copenhagen (Denmark). A key part of its service is the Inflight Entertainment offering. PrivatAir had a pre-loaded iPad solution that offered passengers movies, TV shows, music, games and digital publications. There were several logistics and operational problems with this solution. Airline crew had to manually update each single iPad with new content. Updates were happening all around the world (system breaking down), adding hours to their already busy schedule, which resulted in a real culprit for crew efficiency. Airline wished to offer a more dynamic, flexible IFE product that reduced cost and improved crew logistics and was looking at new ways on how to do this.

Solution

Privatair Everhub deployment   Inflight Dublin evaluated the operation and proposed our Wireless Everhub solution that would not only ensure costs savings, but would also mitigate the previous logistic issues that crew were experiencing by eliminating the manual updating of the iPads. After the initial presentation with PrivatAir / Hapag Lloyd team, they were very impressed and happy to proceed with the wireless solution. PrivatAir was included from a design point of view and collaboratively we fine-tuned the brand design. We then had a workshop with the crew and team in which we discussed their pain points and reviewed the current setup. In light of this, we demonstrated how the new set up would work and how more efficient it would be. Inflight Dublin suggested a portable wireless IFE server to be utilised as a streaming service. This meant that only the server needed to be updated, rather than having to update all iPads manually. The server streams video and audio files to the iPads and enables passengers to download their preferred publications. The experience for the passenger was identical to the pre-loaded iPad scenario, however, with an added benefit… they could also use their own mobile devices to stream media and download publications. For the crew, Inflight Dublin provided a dedicated mobile application. This “crew app” allowed a crew member to download the daily publication package before they boarded the aircraft, and with a push of a button, push the new package to the wireless IFE server.  

Outcome

From the content point of view, we provide PrivatAir with 10 movies, 10 TV Shows, 50 Albums, Publications and airline material per cycle.

This solution improved the passenger experience, by allowing PrivatAir to download the digital publications to their own devices. It also saved over 5 hours of work, per day, for PrivatAir’s crew, by providing a quick and easy way for them to update the digital publications. Senior Vice-President of Business Aviation at the airline, Pedro Caneira, reiterated that “Inflight Dublin developed a bespoke wireless IFE system, with crew management App…delivered in a highly efficient and professional manner. ”

Inflight Dublin, leading in-flight entertainment content and software provider, today announced the signing of strategic, multi-year content service agreement with Somon Air.

Inflight Dublin will provide a suite of core in-flight entertainment (IFE) content services, including movies, TV, and audio on overhead and seatback systems aboard all Somon Air aircraft.

We are delighted to offer Somon Air up to 100 media titles, including the very latest movies, television, and audio programming on regional and international flights. The new partnership underlines Inflight Dublin’s continued expansion into the EurAsian region.