Consumerization - passengers toting their tablets laptops smartphones and e-readers on planes
- has forced airlines to re-think. Should they continue to invest heavily into Inflight
Entertainment (IFE) systems or just concentrate on offering Wi-Fi and power in the cabin? The
goal of this research was to define the IFE offer of the future. Four barriers that split the
world into the three regions Europe Asia and USA in terms of IFE development were identified:
the cultural the commercial the technological and the legal barrier. This book focuses on
Europe which lags mostly behind with IFE out of these three regions. For example as opposed
to the US no major European airline offers inflight Wi-Fi widely on its network and in
contrast to leading Middle Eastern airlines none offers inflight live TV or the usage of mobile
phones without restriction like on the ground. The target was to define IFE from a consumer
perspective. To capture the latter the author evaluated consumer satisfaction methodologies and
decided to go with the Kano approach which categorizes alternatives of a product or service
in this case IFE in must-be attractive and indifferent elements. A representative online
survey revealed movies and power to be must-be TV and Wi-Fi to be attractive and the rest
e-books music games and duty free onboard to be indifferent elements of IFE. The majority of
people indicated that they would pay for movies and Wi-Fi but not for power supply TV or other
content. Differently said content-wise passengers only insisted in the supply of movies for
the rest they expected the airline to provide Internet and power so they themselves could get
the content. Further sub-groups were analysed - people within the sample with mutual
characteristics like gender travel frequency or ownership of smart devices. So was music on a
plane a must for women and owners of iPhones were more willing to pay for apps than others.
Overall country of residence travel purpose (leisure or business) and flight duration (long
vs. short haul) were the greatest dividers re IFE requirements. To answer the core question of
how the future IFE should be like the author argues that consumerization means an enormous
potential. If people are consuming IFE on their personal devices IFE can finally be fully
customized leading to an increase in its take up rate and revenue as this research indicates.
Moreover it can work as a marketing tool outside the air cabin because it is delivered on a
device that is constantly in a passenger s pocket. IFE is no longer restricted to the air
cabin. Airlines have been asking themselves for too long What technology can we apply and what
can we subsequently offer to passengers? instead of How does a frictionless great consumer
experience of IFE present itself nowadays? It should no longer be Inflight Entertainment but
Airline Entertainment starting long before passengers board a plane e.g. by being
incorporated in the smart devices app of an airline displaying games to men that are browsing
flights and suggesting duty free bargains to holiday goers so they can add them onto a wish
list and purchase the items when airborne. All of this making entertainment part of the entire
travel value chain.
