Safran Buys Zodiac Aerospace & Airbus’ Flying Car Plans: APEX Daily Experience Week in Review
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Here are the most-read stories from this week’s APEX Daily Experience newsletters. To receive breaking passenger experience industry news in your inbox on a daily basis, subscribe here.
All-French Aerospace Merger: Safran Agrees to Buy Zodiac for $10.5 Billion
BLOOMBERG | JANUARY 19, 2017
Aircraft engine manufacturer Safran has agreed to buy Zodiac Aerospace for $10.5 billion in a deal that will merge France’s two biggest aerospace companies. The acquisition follows multiple profit warnings issued by the aircraft seat supplier and a tumbling share price that occurred amid delays in delivering seats to Airbus for the recently launched A350. Philippe Petitcolin, Safran’s CEO, said the deal will create the world’s third-largest aerospace supplier behind GE and United Technologies. Petitcolin will remain at the helm of the group, with Zodiac CEO Olivier Zarrouati as his deputy. French President François Hollande said he welcomed the takeover, describing it as a “beautiful industrial operation.”
Airbus Plans Flying Car Prototype by End of Year
THE INDEPENDENT | JANUARY 17, 2017
Airbus is planning to test a prototype for a flying car by the end of this year and expects to put it into production by 2021, said the group’s CEO, Tom Enders, on Monday. A recently formed Airbus division, called Urban Air Mobility, has been exploring concepts such as a flying taxi that can carry multiple passengers and be booked via an Uber-style app. The company expects such innovations to ease congestion on roads. “One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich. “We take this development very seriously.”
Masterstroke: Cathay Pacific Creates Personalized Birthday Artwork for Loyalty Members
THE DESIGNAIR | JANUARY 16, 2017
Cathay Pacific and its subsidiary, Cathay Dragon, have started giving members of their Marco Polo Club loyalty program customized contemporary art on their birthday via e-mail. The airlines’ Artmap Project uses an algorithm to create personalized illustrations in real time for more than one million loyalty members based on their travels with Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon over the past year. “Rather than send a mass-produced impersonal birthday greeting, we wanted to make a more meaningful connection with all of our tier members,” says Elaine Lee, Cathay Pacific’s manager for Loyalty Marketing. “Each Artmap is hosted on a minisite, where members witness their piece painting itself before their eyes, elegantly illustrating their year of travel.”
Gilat and Air Esurfing Launch China In-Flight Broadband Partnership
GET CONNECTED | JANUARY 18, 2017
Gilat Satellite Networks has signed a partnership with Air Esurfing, a subsidiary of Air Media Group, with the aim of delivering domestic in-flight broadband connectivity over mainland China. The partners plan to use China Satcom’s Ka-band capacity, scheduled to launch later this year, to offer a broadband solution with data speeds exceeding 100 Mbps. Gilat and Air Esurfing will jointly pursue supplemental type certification for the system and are planning to launch commercial trials by early 2018. “We are honored to have been selected by Air Esurfing, a key player in the domestic Chinese in-flight entertainment and connectivity market, to jointly deliver on the promise of high-quality connectivity for airline passengers throughout China,” said Jun Xiang, Gilat’s general manager for China.
APEX CEO Joe Leader Speaks to The Economist About IFE Movie Editing
THE ECONOMIST | JANARY 19, 2017
The Economist yesterday published an article on how and why movies are edited for in-flight entertainment. To address the topic, the weekly publication’s Gulliver business travel blog spoke with APEX CEO Joe Leader, who said that while terrorism and airplane crashes are still unlikely to be shown on board, entertainment providers can take a selective approach to editing based on the likely demographic of the flight. According to Leader, the “best litmus test for regional in-flight entertainment practices” is local television. For Europe, “some nudity may be readily seen on broadcast television,” yet graphic violence is less acceptable, while the opposite applies in the Middle East and the US.
Rage Gauge: Expedia Study Reveals Behaviors That Most Annoy Fellow Passengers
FORBES | JANUARY 20, 2017
The results of Expedia’s Airplane Etiquette Study have been revealed after garnering feedback from 1,005 Americans. The survey was conducted by GfK and identifies the behaviors that most annoy air travelers. From a list of bothersome in-flight behaviors including boozing, excessive chatting, undressing and inattentive parenting, 64 percent of travelers rated rear-seat kicking as the most infuriating passenger habit. In second place, 59 percent cited “parents who have no control over, or pay no attention to, their crying, whining or misbehaved children.” Flyers with poor hygiene or who wear excessive perfume were listed as the third least liked. On a more positive note, nearly four out of five respondents felt that “for the most part, fellow passengers are considerate of one another.”
