What does an industry recovery look like? Airlines investing in the on-board product is a strong indicator, and FlightPath3D‘s record so far in 2021 suggests things are getting better in a hurry. The company announced an additional 500 aircraft fitted with its moving maps solution in the first half of 2021.
Our suite of interactive travel applications, including our route map and smart travel guide, is driving the demand, especially with our best in class in-seat installations. We’re also seeing the move to a touchless cabin driving demand for our Wi-Fi streaming map that’s viewed on passengers’ own devices.
– Duncan Jackson, FlightPath3D President
Company president Duncan Jackson called out the company’s strong partnerships across multiple in-flight entertainment systems providers, including Anuvu, Astronics, Burrana, Gogo, IDAIR, Immfly, Panasonic, Safran Passenger Solutions, and Thales, as helping to deliver the quick install pace.
Flexibility in the modular system, deployable on embedded or streaming IFE platforms, also helps the company to secure airline partners and meet their moving map needs.
CEO Boris Veksler is confident that the company will surpass its target of 4,000 total aircraft installs by the end of the year. The company announced its 3,000th install in April of this year.
Making money with moving maps
FlightPath3D also hopes the modular nature of the platform will help the company get to the next stage of moving map systems on board: Making money.
Read more: Arc begins mapping a new digital services future for Panasonic Avionics
Rather than being a one-way data stream Veskler describes a more interactive experience the company hopes to deliver. “We’ve been busy creating new applications that help passengers find flights, routes, and destinations based on personal profiles and their experience desires.”
This has been a multi-year effort, one that the company hopes is ready to finally pay off.
The company is not alone in pursuing this effort. Panasonic Avionics brought its Arc Maps system online with Vistara‘s 787 fleet. Other vendors similarly talk about tweaking the IFE experience with better ad targeting and other revenue-generation solutions. Thus far it is mostly talk and little in the way of demonstrable value to airlines. Lots of ideas are in discussion but nothing seems to have stuck yet.
But all aspects of the industry are focused on digitalization. Perhaps it is finally time that these integrations will gain traction and deliver the promised revenue boost.
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