It's Friday and I'd love nothing better right now than to make some final preparations for the NBAA show and spend some time with my daughter. The very last thing I want to do is write a blog post about how OnAir CEO Ian Dawkins is back-pedaling on comments made to me at the recent APEX show in Long Beach.
Before I give RWG's fair readers a gentle reminder about what Dawkins said, however, I'd like to stress that this blog is not about OnAir or its joint venture partners Airbus and SITA.
It's also not about Boeing, Thales, Qatar, the 787, APEX, the APEX newsletter, bicycles or cycling performance tips.
Sadly, there is a hint of recycling to this blog, but it is borne out of the simple, yet unfortunate fact that the record apparently needs to be set straight again because Dawkins insists on trying to rewrite history, which is particularly difficult to do when you've been videotaped saying the very thing you deny saying.
During the APEX show in Long Beach, Dawkins told me the connectivity hardware being installed on Qatar Airways' Boeing 787s "is not going to be an Airbus solution" and as such, OnAir is looking for alternative solutions.
Key quote:
"...I'm looking for alternative solutions. That is exactly what I'm doing because the market requires different solutions. And that's exactly what we're doing on here. It's a requirement from Qatar. It's a requirement from Boeing as well and I was asked if I would provide the service, which I fully supported."In the world of in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC), Dawkin's revelation was big news. And I reported just what he said. As we later found out, however, Dawkins was wrong and neither Boeing nor Qatar made any such requirement.
A simple "whoops a daisy, sorry, I misspoke", would have put the matter totally to rest. To date, I have not received a retraction from Dawkins.
Instead, Dawkins told the APEX newsletter, issued today, that he was "misreported".
Says Dawkins:
"I have been misreported. Boeing and Qatar have no concerns whatsoever about Airbus's ALNA V2 onboard communications infrastructure, which supports our mobile phone and WiFi Internet access services on the Airbus widebodies."Sigh, double sign, triple sigh with cherries on top.
I don't have an axe to grind. I am exercising an immense amount of restraint by not titling this blog - "OnAir CEO peddles backwards" (or something clever and easily scrapped up by aggregators). Peace, love, and "God bless us all, everyone," as young Tiny Tim would say.
But I am aware that many APEX readers are also readers of this blog, and deserve to hear the whole truth.
Dawkins was not misreported. But don't take my word for it. Here is Dawkins in his own words.
(Photo above from Peter Blanchard's Flickr photo stream)
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