{"id":47125,"date":"2026-04-18T01:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/airlines-see-ifc-as-way-to-build-relationships-with-customers\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T01:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T17:59:17","slug":"airlines-see-ifc-as-way-to-build-relationships-with-customers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/airlines-see-ifc-as-way-to-build-relationships-with-customers\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlines See IFC as Way to Build Relationships With Customers"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

HAMBURG, Germany<\/em> \u2014 As in-flight connectivity (IFC) has become a core part of the customer experience while flying, airlines are looking at IFC as one of the ways they form a connection with customers and provide content that resonates.<\/p>\n

flydubai<\/strong> and Ethiopian Airlines<\/strong> gave their perspectives on the changing dynamics of this market at the Passenger Experience Conference in the run-up to Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) in Hamburg this week.<\/p>\n

Dubai-based airline flydubai sees its business transforming from the transportation business to the hospitality business. Daniel Kerrison, senior vice president of In-Flight Operations for flydubai said the airline stopped referring to itself as a low-cost carrier in 2016, and is looking at opportunities to think differently about its customers\u2019 experience.<\/p>\n

flydubai is an interesting case study when it comes to IFC. It introduced IFC back in 2016 with a solution based on Ku-band. Kerrison admitted that at the time it \u201cdidn\u2019t do for us what we hoped it would.\u201d After taking a pause, the airline now has committed to installing Starlink on its in fleet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have learned is that people will fly with us, not because of the stuff we give them, but because of the way that they feel. Starlink is one piece of the puzzle about making those emotional connections with customers. People come back and fly with us, because of the way they feel when they fly with us,\u201d Kerrison added.<\/p>\n

IFC connectivity is part of building \u201cemotional connections\u201d to customers, Kerrison said, which also includes taking a close look at the content offered.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirlines are in a unique position to curate content that aligns with their brand and creates emotional ties with the brand. What we have is the ability offer is a curated collection of content. If we can make someone laugh, cry during a flight, that is a win for us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have an enormous volume of content. Some of the most unique independent content is some of the most watched content. It future-proofs us. We want to curate more and more content with our customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samson Arega Bekele, group vice president of Customer Experience for Ethiopian Airlines said with the airline growing strongly over the last two decades, IFC has become more of a consideration. While recognizing that IFC technology has advanced, Bekele also said that the industry has also been \u201csluggish\u201d in this area.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important that we give the customer a similar experience to what they have at home. Customers are comparing us with Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. You need personalization, commercialization. We believe it is a core element now. It is not just another feature. It is very important now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The panel also featured key speakers from the satellite industry with both SES <\/strong>and ThinKom Solutions <\/strong>being represented. Jeff Sare, chief commercial officer of ThinKom Solutions said the company believes the best technology is the one that you can use. \u201cBoth LEO and GEO have strengths and weaknesses. By looking at the use case first, and working backwards, that is where we will get our most bang from the buck,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sare talked about the benefits of the airline owning the passenger experience \u2014 even if not every airline wants to go down that route. The key going forward is to have a better understanding of the technology to fit an airline\u2019s ambitions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to understand the technology and know where you want to go. Technology is going to change. Where I think we need to be thoughtful as an industry, is for example, move the conversation on standardization along so that it doesn\u2019t limit your ability to change things,\u201d said Sare.<\/p>\n

Blane Boynton, senior vice president of Product Development for SES said the sales conversation and dialogue has shifted in IFC. The move to Non-Geostationary Orbit (NGSO) and Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) solutions has meant there is now a shift toward the quality of experience.<\/p>\n

Providing a great connection \u201cis the price of admission nowadays\u201d as customers now have an expectation to smooth and regular access to the content they like. Airlines and connectivity providers need to solve the \u201cconnectivity friction\u201d problem so customers don\u2019t suffer when accessing content.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HAMBURG, Germany \u2014 As in-flight connectivity (IFC) has become a core part of the customer experience while flying, airlines are looking at IFC as one of the ways they form a connection with customers and provide content that resonates. flydubai and Ethiopian Airlines gave their perspectives on the changing dynamics of this market at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47125"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}