APEX Editor's Blog

When Intelsat suffered a Ku-band satellite launch failure on 1 February, the event was both surprising and disappointing to certain inflight connectivity stakeholders, which had been counting on using the additional Ku capacity to support their airline customers that fly North Atlantic routes, and in turn these carriers’ bandwidth-hungry passengers. The so-called ‘Intelsat 27′ satellite [...]

AeroMobile’s new CEO Kevin Rogers believes the company will significantly expand its customer base during the next year as the rapid-fire growth on inflight connectivity continues unabated. Rogers took the helm of the airborne GSM service provider in March, roughly one year after IFE giant Panasonic Avionics acquired a majority stake in AeroMobile. The AeroMobile [...]

Lufthansa has issued a war cry to inflight entertainment, connectivity and seat providers to work more closely together to come up with integrated and standardised solutions that will enable airlines to reduce maintenance costs and connect with passengers on an individual level while they have them as a captive audience. Speaking at a one-day conference [...]

First class cabins still have a future but will have to become more luxurious as business class increasingly takes on the attributes of the old first class, according to Lufthansa head of product management and airport passenger services, Joachim Schneider. The German carrier is not looking at moving away from offering a first class cabin [...]

NEW YORK: IATA’s answer to the evolution of product distribution for airlines dubbed the “New Distribution Capability” (NDC) could find some resistance in Europe where passenger privacy remains a high priority for various countries on the continent. The association took a major step in its push and development of the NDC by recently seeking approval [...]

NEW YORK: Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa is targeting a 2014 debut for its premium economy offering following the refurbishment of its long-haul fleet with fully flat seats in the business class cabins of those aircraft. The carrier spent much of 2012 indicating it was studying a premium economy concept and in December revealed its supervisory [...]

NEW YORK: When it comes to courting the premium class traveller, airlines compete with each other by offering cushy extras like lie-flat seats, extensive inflight entertainment and gourmet meals – sometimes even cooked by onboard chefs. Dubai-based Emirates touts a shower for its first class passengers on the Airbus A380 superjumbo. Turkish recently brought reporters [...]

Yesterday I read a news headline that proclaimed, “When it comes to inflight Wi-Fi, supply far exceeds demand”. I couldn’t disagree more. One need only use inflight Wi-Fi – or read the complaints on social media from people who do – to see that demand far exceeds the capacity of current onboard connectivity systems, be [...]

Considering the Internet bandwidth constraints being experienced by passengers on board aircraft today, it could be argued that the failed launch of an Intelsat Ku-band satellite designed to cover North Atlantic routes couldn’t have happened at a worse time. On 1 February Intelsat announced that the launch of its Intelsat 27 satellite failed approximately 40 [...]

On their next trip, Austrian Airlines’ international economy-class passengers may feel as if there is a bit more space between them and the row ahead. They may get a charge out of the touchscreen seat-back entertainment system, preloaded with 100 hours of programming. When the dinner trays are collected and they recline their seats, those [...]