{"id":52794,"date":"2023-09-07T22:14:02","date_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:14:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/airline-execs-see-ifc-business-models-as-part-of-larger-brand-strategy\/"},"modified":"2023-09-07T22:14:02","modified_gmt":"2023-09-07T14:14:02","slug":"airline-execs-see-ifc-business-models-as-part-of-larger-brand-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/airline-execs-see-ifc-business-models-as-part-of-larger-brand-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Airline Execs See IFC Business Models as Part of Larger Brand Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p><em>DENVER, COLORADO<\/em> \u2014 Providing passengers in-flight internet connectivity (IFC), with live TV and on-demand entertainment streaming services from takeoff to landing is gaining serious momentum in the airline industry.<\/p>\n<p>Satellite operators like OneWeb, Intelsat, Viasat and Telesat are among the satellite providers competing to offer IFC services to airlines. According to a Frost and Sullivan report released in July, researchers expect that the global in-flight connectivity service market will reach $968.8 million by 2032. Increasing passenger demand for seamless connectivity, advancements in satellite communication technologies, and air traffic growth will drive this expansion, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>How that connectivity works and how airlines pay for the investment in satellite technology was part of a discussion at the Connected Aviation Intelligence Summit, in Denver, Colorado, on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Andre Patrick, manager of In-flight, Wi-Fi and Analytics for <strong>Air Canada<\/strong>, said that free Wi-Fi is still a moving target for airlines, and the hospitality industry is driving customer expectations. \u201cWhen you go to a hotel, you connect for free,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to think about it. I think that mentality is coming to the airlines.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Air Canada announced this week that it is expanding its connectivity deal with Intelsat, adding 100 aircraft. Air Canada has been working with Intelsat and its predecessor, Gogo, for 14 years connecting for various aircraft of the flagship Canadian air carrier.<\/p>\n<p>Patrick shared an anecdote of a passenger conducting day-trading on a flight that showed the significance of staying connected. \u201cThe response I got from the flight crew was that it was a super important deal and he had internet available so he didn\u2019t miss out on that trade,\u201d Patrick said. \u201cWe\u2019re talking about an $80,000 trade that was happening. Connectivity is even more important than just sending an email.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brittany McSweeny, senior CX Connectivity consultant for <strong>Southwest Airlines<\/strong>, said the airline sees customers connect to Teams calls. \u201cThey\u2019re listening in and they\u2019re participating via chat,\u201d she said. \u201cBeing able to provide a consistent, reliable experience where customers are able to work from the sky is really important to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, Southwest Airlines added Viasat as an in-flight connectivity provider. &nbsp;The airline also recently expanded the audience that receives free internet. \u201cIt had just been for our preferred members, which are our top tier loyalty members,\u201d McSweeny said. \u201cNow anybody who purchases certain business class will receive internet as well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Angela Vargo, head of Brand Marketing for <strong>Breeze Airways<\/strong>, talked about how connectivity is part of the young airline\u2019s strategy to build its brand. Breeze Airways was created by JetBlue founder, now CEO of Breeze, David Neeleman, in May 2021. The company works with Viasat for their IFC solution.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you are starting an airline from scratch, you think about everything, all kind of in the same bucket,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m building a brand loyalty program and a Wi-Fi experience all at the same time. So as a result, all of these things are going to be very highly integrated. There is no wall. Because a lot of what airlines have had to do is kind of shoehorn existing technologies into their IFC model.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Vargo said that Breeze is going to launch a \u201cmore enhanced experience\u201d as part of their brand loyalty program next year, but the airline doesn\u2019t offer free Wi-Fi on its flights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am not a believer that 100% of people need to have free Wi-Fi on a flight. I think that there\u2019s so many other methods to store content and do free messaging,\u201d Vargo said.<\/p>\n<p>As the market of satellite solutions evolves, Vargo said she\u2019s interested in Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite solutions like Amazon\u2019s Project Kuiper constellation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving started this journey with Wi-Fi back in the Dark Ages, this is the second really big evolution that we\u2019ve experienced. I think it\u2019s exciting to watch because there will be a new entrants, and they will push the limits. That\u2019s always going to help us innovate along with some of the partners,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s pretty interesting to watch how this will play out, especially with new entrants to the market like Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>DENVER, COLORADO \u2014 Providing passengers in-flight internet connectivity (IFC), with live TV and on-demand entertainment streaming services from takeoff to landing is gaining serious momentum in the airline industry. Satellite operators like OneWeb, Intelsat, Viasat and Telesat are among the satellite providers competing to offer IFC services to airlines. According to a Frost and Sullivan [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":52795,"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-52794","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\/52794"}],"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=52794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}