AirFi and CoKinetic Systems Improve UX on Portable IFE System
Share
APEX Insight: Partnered with CoKinetic, AirFi is now able to offer airlines a complete in-flight entertainment solution to support BYOD through its portable AirFi box.
AirFi, the company behind the portable, battery powered Wi-Fi-network-in-a-box has teamed with app developer CoKinetic Systems to provide a lighter in-flight entertainment solution for low-cost, regional and leisure carriers.
By leveraging CoKinetic’s expertise on designing seatback graphical user interfaces (GUIs), such as the AirPlay platform employed by Air New Zealand, Delta Air Lines, Emirates, United Airlines, Virgin America and Virgin Australia, AirFi can now offer a full IFE system that includes short videos, digital magazines, city guides, chat and games with an improved user experience through branded in-flight entertainment menus, allowing airlines to “greatly enhance the passenger experience while providing significant value-added revenue opportunities,” says Greg Johnson, CFO at CoKinetic Systems.
Martijn Moret, CTO at AirFi, also demonstrates how passengers can book a hotel room directly through the airline’s IFE system. It creates an opportunity for in-flight advertising, third-party partnerships and other channels for ancillary revenue, all of which can be managed from one content management system (CMS), he says.
“We aim at interactivity rather than offering movies to people.” – Martijn Moret, CTO at AirFi
While other airlines’ IFE offerings emphasize Hollywood blockbusters and early window content, AirFi is designed with short-haul carriers in mind. “We aim at interactivity rather than offering movies to people,” Moret says, focusing on the pros of the product: about size of a shoebox, weighs 1.3 kilograms (2.5 pounds), serves 50 passengers, has a battery life of 15 hours and can provide IFE wirelessly on the ground and in the air, without the need for any kind of installation.
Moret says he imagines AirFi keeping passengers connected, not just on the plane, but on the shuttle to the airport and inside the airport too. It’s a door to gate connectivity concept that AirFi has tested in Majorca, Dubai and Curaçao.
AirFi is currently flying on over 100 aircraft on Estonian Air, Turi, Transavia, Adria Airways as well as other airlines in Mexico, India and the Philippines.