If you haven't done so already, head on over to SITA's web site and check out CEO Francesco Violante's speech today at the Air Transport IT summit.
He has loads of interesting things to say, but for the IFE&C crowd, here is the big news: Some 68% of airlines plan to invest in IP broadband connectivity both to and from aircraft over the next three years, according to a joint survey conducted by Airline Business and SITA.
Says Violante:
The mobile passenger is connected onboard via the technology already available - for example, by OnAir - as we will hear later today.
The aircraft will become another 'NODE ON THE NETWORK'. A FLYING DATA CENTRE linked through wireless broadband to an airline's ground-based network.
High-speed upload capabilities will produce time-savings and operational efficiencies in areas such as software loading and in-flight entertainment loading.
The huge volumes of data generated by e-enabled aircraft will be used to improve aircraft turnaround - and give us the CO2 data necessary to measure our environmental performance.
These are not distant scenarios!
So, if you are an airline and you haven't thought about your connectivity strategy yet, don't you think it's time?
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