Inflight editor Alexander Preston summarises the latest happenings across IFEC and cabin technology.
It’s difficult to avoid the bunting as the UK and it seems most of the world gears up for this weekend’s Royal wedding.
Even flying at 35,000ft won’t make you immune from wedding fever as British Airways will celebrate the Royal wedding, by operating flight BA93 on May 19 to Toronto – the city where their relationship took off – will be operated by a crew of only Meghans and Harrys.
More sparkle is available as throughout May, customers on long-haul flights will be able to watch episodes of the Toronto-shot TV series Suits, enjoy documentaries and podcasts about how Harry and Meghan met and the history of Windsor Castle. Passengers who miss the event on television will be able to catch up on board, as the wedding highlights will be available on long-haul flights the following day.
The theme of union continues as Bombardier Business Aircraft ramps up its investment in the passenger experience with collaborations with Lufthansa Technik – for enhancements to the nice Touch cabin management system for the Global 7000 aircraft (we look forward to seeing it up close at EBACE in a few weeks’ time) – and Duncan Aviation for STCs covering Gogo’s AVANCE L5 4G system.
Elsewhere, SAS has launched Wi-Fi services in co-operation with ViaSat on its short- and medium-haul routes between Scandinavia and continental Europe. The airline has already begun installations and expects the vast majority of its fleet to be Wi-Fi enabled by the first quarter of 2020.
While young Prince Louis may have grabbed the attention of royal watchers recently, it’s LEO which is gaining the interest of the aviation market. Global Eagle, a customer of Telesat’s geostationary satellites, is to begin tests of Telesat’s Phase 1 LEO satellite, using its newly developed Ka-band antenna.
LEO promises to deliver low-latency, high-speed broadband – perfect for announcing future royal proclamations.
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