for January 21, 2008
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Hot Topic:
Another One Bites The Dust!
The
IMS year-end brag piece (see Latest IFE News Releases below) causes us to
look back on 2007 and evaluate what the year meant with respect to the
portables market. What began a few years ago as a low-cost solution for
airlines that didn't see embedded IFE within their means has emerged at the
end of 2007 as one of IFE’s most successful solutions for airlines looking
to provide upscale amenities to their business class passengers. American
Airlines, Northwest, US Airways, and now a fourth major U.S. carrier - who
do “U” think it might be - have turned to portable solutions in premium
cabins. While it may be that some airlines see portables as ephemeral
solutions bridging one generation of embedded IFE to another, it may also be
the heavy, expensive and proprietary embedded systems that migrate into
ephemera. (Rising fuel prices are airlines’ biggest cost issue, and embedded
IFE usually means a more weight.) Lets face it, portability no longer
equates to a compromise in quality. After all, it now seems that laptops are
displacing desktop computers as a consumer preference, why not on the plane?
American found the portables they provided in their 767-300 business class
cabins so popular that they expedited installation of the portables in the
767-200 business class cabin. Further, American, Eos and LOT all increased
their portables inventory last year. No doubt, when the pundits tally the
the portable IFE totals, 2007 will be the biggest year yet (probably
somewhere between $70 and $100 million). Note however, fixed IFE and
connectivity will still garner 10 to 15 times the sales volume, much of that
is dedicated to international upgrades.
Prior to September the airlines were in a competitive down spin, while air travel was up, so were costs. As airlines began to recover from September 11, SARS, and all of the plagues they faced at the change of the millennium, they focused their investment on upgrading the premium classes in the tapered end of the aircraft, not in the back. Admittedly, the Big 2 IFE manufacturers will record record sales this past year with a lot of the growth due to the commercial airplane delivery and delayed retrofit catch-up, but what will 2008 bring? Now that recession seems to be returning, fuel costs climbing, and further consolidation is being rumored among the major U.S. carriers (see below), is it possible that the next round of cutbacks on economy class amenities will include IFE? (What else is left?) If you now have to carry your own meals onboard in economy, is "carry-on IFE" that far behind or is it here today with the latest round of PEDS? Will airlines simply offer you a seatback docking station or a Wi-Fi enabled connection and let passengers bring their own devices/content onboard? Will connectivity-based Smartphones, laptops and iPods replace domestic IFE? What about inflight TV? After three consecutive years of increased revenue averaging approximately 50% annually, IMS chairman and CEO Joseph Renton tells IFEXpress that his company is financially strong and prepared to strategically invest in a range of travel market solutions involving "planes, trains and automobiles - and all the places that serve them." Perhaps travel entertainment diversification for IFE is the next new thing!
- Mergers Benefit Airlines; Shame About the Fliers (Wall Street Journal)
- Aircraft orders predicted to halve this year (Travel Weekly)
Unfinished Business
- Watch for Panasonic to cut a deal with a Nav house!
- Norwegian Air rolling out in-flight phone use, internet access (Engadget)
- Aisle Surfing! (YouTube)
- And lastly, a Boeing wag told us the latest B787 floundering is a direct result (at least partially) of process driven manufacturing. It's just that no one defined the processes for out of sequence development, procurement, handling and/or missing part assembly. No processes, no planes! Hmmmm?
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Solutions Provider IMS
Increases 2007 Revenues by 25%
1/21/2008 7:31:12 PM
Boeing, Gulf Air Close 787
Dreamliner Deal
1/21/2008 7:29:37 PM
Boeing Receives Follow-on
Order for 787 from PrivatAir
1/21/2008 7:29:03 PM
Boeing Shifts Schedule for 787
First Flight
1/21/2008 7:28:30 PM
Brazilian carrier TAM signed a
firm contract for 22 A350 XWBs, four additional A330-200s and 20 additional
A320 Family aircraft
1/21/2008 7:27:11 PM
Airbus 2007 results
1/21/2008 7:26:00 PM
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Airbus could
see 27% of order backlog hit in downturn, executive says
Market Watch
Airbus
Seeking Development Help For A350XWB
Aero-News Network
Boeing warns
against fresh state aid for Airbus
AFP
Boeing's
Ripple Effect Begins
The Street
Boeing-Airbus 2007 orders race closes with 'diplomatic' finish
Flight Global
Air India
demands compensation for Dreamliner delay
Cargo News Asia
Airlines
offer huge but challenging potential for Mobile Satellite Services
operators, says NSR
Tekrati
EMRISE
CORPORATION Subsidiary, Pascall Electronics Ltd., Receives Follow-On Orders
In Excess Of $2M For Its In-Flight Entertainment Products
Aerospace Online
Legend To
Play Airplane Gig to Mark Grammy's 50th Anniversary
PR Inside
Virgin
widens Meditainment concept
Internet Travel News
Clinton
plays flight attendant
CNN Politics
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WAEA
Technology Committee Meeting
1/22/2008 - 1/23/2008
Aircraft Interiors Expo - Hamburg
4/1/2008 - 4/3/2008
8th
Annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE2008)
5/20/2008 - 5/22/2008
WAEA
29th Annual Conference and Exhibition
9/8/2008 - 9/11/2008
Aircraft Interiors Expo - Americas
9/9/2008 - 9/11/2008
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