IFE&C consultant Michael Planey had a grand chat with fellow industry oracle Addison Schonland, and let's just say Planey is concerned for the industry.
With spending down on travel and carriers slashing capacity, we can expect "a direct correlation" to in-flight offerings. There is lots more to digest here, of course.
Check it out at:
http://iagblog.podomatic.com/entry/2009-04-30T09_05_34-07_00
on April 30, 2009 10:30 PM | Reply
I'm not sure that the financial troubles at the airlines matter too much. LiveTV is funding the installs for Continental themselves, and keeping the bulk of the revenue. I believe that Aircell is doing the same with their gogo service. So the lack of cash in the actual carriers is much less of an issue than general financing troubles that are out there.
In the case of Aircell that seems to be more related to their ability to actually drive usage of their system to generate some cash flow. There are some saying that the revenue numbers just aren't there and eventually that will mean that Aircell won't be able to afford the install costs or the operational costs of their system, but it is still too early to know if that is really happening.
For LiveTV I think that they'll be OK for a bit yet. Their parent, jetBlue, actually had a profit last quarter so there is at least a smidgen of financial stability there.