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What's the one thing that Continental Airlines pilots would absolutely love to have on board their aircraft?

Airborne telephony service, the likes of which was previously offered by now-defunct Verizon Airfone!

That's the revelation that Continental engineering project manager Brian Roland made at the recent World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition in Palm Springs.

Airfone in 2006 ended its service on board commercial airline flights. The air-to-ground (ATG) service was featured on over 1,000 aircraft flying in the Americas for Continental, Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and US Airways.

"Flight ops want the old voice communications back," said Roland.

As such, in 2007, the carrier inked a deal with Avionica to outfit nine Boeing 737-800 passenger aircraft with the firm's satLINK Iridium system, including antenna, wiring, structural elements and a control panel. The initial installations provide an Iridium phone handset in the cockpit.

In an update this year, IridiumEverywhere.com reported:



Continental must be pretty pleased. The carrier is "putting Iridium on a few of our fleets", revealed Roland at WAEA.

Roland also revealed that Continental "sees a future need to have streaming maintenance data off the aircraft".

But would Continental's Iridium arrangement position the carrier to take advantage of LiveTV's new Iridium-based Kiteline World global in-flight connectivity product?

Not exactly.

Regular Iridium is 2.4 Kbps and $1.50 per minute, which is used for cockpit voice. Iridium Aero Openport operates at 128 Kbps and is supporting Kiteline World.

Continental is, however, in the process of equipping its Boeing domestic fleet with LiveTV's latest generation live television product. And the carrier is set to experiment with LiveTV's ATG-based domestic Kiteline email service on roughly 30 aircraft in the first quarter.

The service will be free.

Who else loves this carrier?

I received this photo of Virgin Group president and founder Sir Richard Branson with Virgin America pilots Melinda Senior, Kim Gabrelcik, and Angela Cailliau from the San Francisco-based carrier.

Says Virgin America: 

Sir Richard keynoted the general session of the 2009 California Women's Conference with Gov. Schwarzenegger and FDIC Chairwoman Sheila Baer. Sir Richard and the panel discussed the success of micro-loans to female borrowers in the third world, the importance of risk-taking, and the need for more women to enter fields, like aviation, where a fresh perspective is needed.

Virgin America, the only California-based airline, was the Official Airline Sponsor of the 2009 Women's Conference. Speakers and attendees from across the country flew into Los Angeles for the two-day conference via Virgin America's award-winning service.  Other speakers at the conference included such notables as Annie Leibovitz, Madeleine Albright, Alicia Keyes, Candace Bushnell and Caroline Kennedy.

A lot of great women in that list, but a special hats off to the women in aviation!

Nine years after attending my first World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition in Anaheim, California, I'm headed back to the West Coast for the organization's 30th annual expo in Palm Springs.

As I pack my bags for tomorrow's flight, I am reminded that much has changed in the world of in-flight entertainment since I first stepped foot on the WAEA show floor in 2000 (and later hit some of the after-hours events, ahem).

And yet, much remains the same.

In-flight connectivity, for example, was the big buzz term in 2000 (check out some of my first "IFEC" articles below).

Everyone in Anaheim seemed to have a bright idea for bringing in-flight text messaging, email, "feels like Internet" and full-blown Internet to passengers.

Today, connectivity is still the big buzz and, frankly, many stakeholders are still trying to understand how it fits into the equation. But the industry has come a long way baby!

Thanks in part to connectivity, the way we journalists report on the industry has also evolved. This year, I will be joined in covering the WAEA show by Flight journalist and blogger extraordinaire Jon Ostrower, aka Flightblogger. Be sure to check out Flight Global's web site for all the latest news, blogs and video from WAEA.

If you're a Twitter fan, we'll be tweeting throughout the show. Follow us and participate in the chat at the following hashtags #WAEA and #IFEC.

Inflightonline chief says customer to be named soon
Mary Kirby, Los Angeles (21Sep00, 03:51 GMT, 230 words)

Although Internet service provider Inflightonline.com's plan to announce an airline customer at the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition in Anaheim, California this week has not come to fruition, the company insists it will shortly announce a program with an international carrier.

Company president David Bruner tells ATI that Inflightonline.com will operate the undisclosed carrier's in-flight Internet content under its own brand, rather than as a wholly customized product for the carrier.

ATI sister publication Flight International previously reported that more than 30 aircraft will be involved in the deal.

Inflightonline.com also has a letter of intent from a US carrier to conduct a one-aircraft trial of its content. Bruner says that this will take place about a month after the first deal is announced.

A rash of other in-flight entertainment specialists, avionics manufacturers and Internet service providers here at WAEA are proposing numerous models for which to provide airlines with in-flight e-mail, intranet and Internet capabilities.

Bruner says Inflightonline.com's offering differs in that it will be extremely cost effective, as the content providers absorb most of the cost. Inflightonline's charge for hosting a company's site for one month will be equivalent to a 30sec video spot charged on board an aircraft for one day, he says.

Inflightonline.com has relationships with approximately 100 web sites but expects that number to grow to 400 over the next few weeks.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

SIA to begin in-flight e-mail trials
Mary Kirby, Los Angeles (20Sep00, 07:35 GMT, 188 words)

Singapore Airlines (SIA) has agreed to field the first in-flight entertainment (IFE) products to surface from the alliance between Honeywell and Matsushita Avionics Systems, including the partnership's e-mail offerings.

The companies say in a joint statement released today at the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition in Anaheim, California that the evaluation is scheduled to begin in December onboard an SIA Boeing 747-400. The trial will run for a two-month period.

Primary applications will include Honeywell's Inflightmail e-mail service, credit card verification and terminal area wireless network. The service will be integrated with Matsushita's highly popular System 2000E IFE system.

Although these services have already been certified by the FAA on corporate aircraft, the Singapore installation will be one of the first FAA certifications of an airborne e-mail service for airline passengers, says the vice president and general manager responsible for Honeywell's aviation information systems business, John Uczekaj.

Follow-on applications also being considered for implementation upon completion of the trial include intranet, point-of-sale, e-commerce, and others.

Matsushita Avionics Systems president Takashim Mizuma calls the company's alliance activities with Honeywell "a natural extension of our core capabilities".

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

Row 44 is planning a big press event at next week's World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) conference and exhibition, and with good reason.

The company is about to unveil a new ancillary-revenue tool that "enables airlines to monetize in-flight broadband even among passengers who do not pay for full Internet access" and will be "the first revenue service of its kind flying", says Row 44.

The announcement will name several content, advertising and technology partners, adds the firm.

So, you may be asking, does this new business strategy for in-flight Wi-Fi involve some sort of advertising-based access? Row 44 isn't giving any details until next week. But, let me be the first to say - Oh, very nice!

Row 44 is currently installed on four Southwest Airlines 737s and a single Alaska Airlines 737.

Southwest has opted to rollout the system across its fleet beginning in the first quarter, and Alaska is expected to make a fleet-wide announcement any day now.

Row 44's announcement comes at a time when a growing number of industry stakeholders are questioning the viability of fee-for-service models for in-flight Internet both now and a few years from now.

I recently took a brief holiday to Florida. There, I drank beer in alligator-infested water and ventured to the local Dollar Store in the name of sociology. But I knew I couldn't get so close to JetBlue subsidiary LiveTV and not make a visit.

Boy, I am so glad I did. I saw the most amazing in-flight television at LiveTV's Melbourne, FL facility. 

The system is being rollled out across Continental Airlines' Boeing domestic fleet. Check it out!

 

As the conversation heats up about whether or not current in-flight Wi-Fi business models make sense, it's easy to forget just how jaw-droppingly cool - and entertaining and useful - it is to surf the web at 30,000ft. And while people like me (journa-bloggers always on deadline) may fall into the minority who are willing to pay $20 for unfettered access to airborne Internet, the number of folks who want connectivity - at least in some form - is growing fast.

For lack of a better word, the techies are spreading like a virus and soon we won't want to be disconnected for five or eight or 12 hours during flight (how we pay for the pleasure is another conversation entirely). Even JetBlue Airways subsidiary LiveTV, which believes wholeheartedly in free in-flight Wi-Fi, is exploring an ultra-high-speed Ka-band satellite solution.

That is one of the reasons why major in-flight entertainment (IFE) manufacturers are taking connectivity very seriously. Panasonic Avionics, for example, is readying to equip aircraft with highly-connected IFE systems. Executive director, corporate sales and product management Neil James in April gave a presentation at the WAEA meeting in Kuala Lumpur about Panasonic's "future view" for gadgets and gizmos, which factor strongly into the firm's vision for IFE&C (see below). Look very closely (i.e. click on the actual graphic).

If you think in-flight connectivity isn't here to stay, think again.

 

 

In that vein, here's hoping Aircell can figure a way forward because that company has done something that none other has ever managed to do (including Boeing) - equip a vast amount of aircraft in the USA with in-flight Wi-Fi. One of Aircell's customers, Virgin America, is already working to make its Panasonic-built IFE systems more connected via the Gogo link (we'll talk more about this later). But I'm sure Charles Ogilvie could tell us a thing or two about that. After all, it's all about connections.   

I wonder if Aircell's airline customers are tad peeved at the latest turn of events. The positive publicity they've enjoyed in the media - including on this blog - for bringing in-flight Internet to passengers is diminishing, as everybody and their brother questions the viability of the Gogo fee-for-service model, and as a growing number of consultants go on record to say that not only has Aircell been equipping aircraft for free (which we already surmised), but it has been giving airlines a slice of the early returns (yowers!).

Neither claim has been confirmed by Aircell or the airlines, by the way, but many folks are coming to the seemingly logical conclusion that if Aircell was getting a windfall of cash, it wouldn't need to initiate layoffs.

In the true American tradition of propping up celebrities only to tear them down, the Monday Morning Quarterbacks are now out in the full force with their "I told you so" mantra. Truth be told, a few of them actually did tell us so. One man on the right side of the argument all along has been Connexion by Boeing's former chief marketer David Friedman, who knows a thing or two about unsuccessful forays into the in-flight connectivity realm.

We highlighted some of Friedman's comments on this blog in the past, but two quotes are proving particularly haunting, and should give Aircell's customers pause today.

Said Friedman:

"We [initially] offered to give [Connexion] away as a trial for free but the airlines said, 'If this is successful, you want us to pay for all these antennas?' They were concerned that if customers were demanding it, it would put them [the airline] in a tenuous situation in terms of customer relations.

"So you have the cost of the system and cost of the infrastructure. You can offset that through a variety of ways, such as advertising. But sponsorship and advertising and direct fees is not enough! People believe, by the way, that they should have Internet for free because they are used to having Wi-Fi for free. Then couple that with the issue of power outlets. If an airline doesn't have enough power outlets on the plane, how are they going to charge a flat fee?"

If things are as bad for Aircell as some people claim, what should its airline customers do? A growing number of industry insiders believe these airlines might opt to help sustain the Gogo offering, or, as Friedman notes in a new IAG podcast - "What would have to happen is the airline would have to contribute more of the cost of the equipment."

Listen to the entire podcast in full at the following link: http://iagblog.podomatic.com/player/web/2009-09-22T13_54_52-07_00

For the record, Aircell says it recently received "substantial funding and commitments from existing and new investors and expect to add to those before the financing closes".

Also for the record, despite questions about the Gogo business model - and whether people will actually pay for in-flight Internet - one thing is certain: passengers, many armed with free promos, freaking LOVE the service. Check out what people are saying right now: