World Airline Entertainment Association Approves New Name To Reflect Evolving Industry

The Airline Passenger Experience Association is born

The membership of The World Airline Entertainment Association has voted to change its name to better reflect the role it plays in delivering the passenger experience for the world’s commercial airlines.

Through a two-thirds majority vote, the WAEA membership has approved The Airline Passenger Experience Association (APEX) as the organization’s new name.

The WAEA, which is a not-for-profit association, was founded over 30 years ago, by a group representing the inflight entertainment community. Since then, systems installed on aircraft have moved from simple overhead projection equipment, to highly advanced, networked systems that provide on demand entertainment as well as inflight information and telecommunications, retailing and revenue generation and much more. Today, this industry segment represents an investment by airlines of over $2 billion a year, globally.

“As our industry evolves, it is the association’s obligation to stay ahead of the curve and accurately capture the pulse of our membership,” said WAEA/APEX President Patrick Brannelly. “The word ‘entertainment’ in our name was somewhat limiting the association’s ability to define its future, although of course entertainment is very much our heritage, and will remain at the heart of our activities.”

Brannelly announced the new name today in Hamburg, Germany at the WAEA Conference focusing on Airline Seats and Inflight Entertainment systems. More than 250 delegates from airlines and systems and seat vendor companies attended this event, which was hosted at the Airbus facility.

APEX’s website address will be www.apex.aero.