Airline Launches With Guaranteed Passenger “Catisfaction” and Designers Rethink the Aircraft Seat: 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.
Mewow! Airline Launches to Calm Nervous Feline-Loving Passengers
APEX MEDIA | APRIL 1, 2016
A new airline aimed at travelers suffering from a fear of flying has launched today. Feline Airways says it will help calm nervous flyers by supplying 50 specially-trained aircraft cats per flight to roam freely after takeoff and before landing. “Flying can be an undeniably stressful experience for many passengers. Our roster of over 300 uniquely-trained and incredibly affectionate Feline Airways in-flight cats is proven to calm passengers’ nerves,” says Felix Ocelot, CEO and founder of Feline Airways.
Dream Seats: Three Designers Rethink the Airline Seat
APEX MEDIA | MARCH 29, 2016
If interior or industrial designers could create passenger airline seats, what would they do? We asked three designers to sketch their dream airline seat and then asked illustrator Óscar Chávez to reinterpret them for the March/April issue of APEX Experience. From in-seat bars to tatami mats, these acclaimed designers bring fresh ideas to aircraft seating.
Lufthansa Technik’s niceview Goes Mobile
INFLIGHT ONLINE | MARCH 30, 2016
Lufthansa Technik will unveil the mobile version of its niceview 3-D moving map at the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg next week. Niceview Mobile, which runs on iOS and Android devices, uses real-time satellite imagery to allow passengers to track their flights and retrieve information on altitude, speed and travel time. “Until now, this level of directly experiencing one’s own flight was only available in the cabins of VIP aircraft in certain specially equipped seats. Now passengers can take the fascination of flying into their own hands,” says Andreas Pfister, lead project manager for the Original Equipment Innovation division at Lufthansa Technik.
JetBlue Technology Ventures Invests in Airfare Prediction Startup
TNOOZ | MARCH 28, 2016
JetBlue Technology Ventures, JetBlue’s Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, has announced that it will invest an undisclosed amount in airfare forecaster FLYR. The startup predicts price changes and seat availability for all North American and most European flight routes using machine learning and predictive analytics. Bonny Simi, president of JetBlue Technology Ventures says, “We choose FLYR as our first investment because they share our belief that predictive analytics can provide value to travelers and will change the travel experience in ways we have yet to imagine.”
The Message is the Medium: KLM to Deliver Boarding Passes via Facebook Messenger
THE VERGE | MARCH 31, 2016
KLM is now giving its passengers the option to receive flight updates through Facebook Messenger. After booking tickets on the Dutch flag carrier’s website, customers will have the opportunity to let KLM start up a chat thread where it will send booking confirmations, flight status changes and digital boarding passes. Passengers will also be able to communicate directly with a customer service representative through the Messenger chat window. Commenting on the new partnership with KLM, David Marcus, Facebook’s VP of Messaging Products, says, “This is one that I’ve been personally eager to solve for a while – removing stress and complication from air travel.”
€‹Virgin America Wants You to Watch its Boring Movie
TRAVEL PULSE | MARCH 29, 2016
Virgin America promises reward points to anyone who can endure its nearly six-hour film, “BLAH AIRLINES FLIGHT 101,” which chronicles the mundane experience aboard a flight with cramped seats, harsh lights and lack of entertainment and meal options. Virgin is set to premiere the video at the 13th annual Vail Film Festival this April in Colorado, and will reward festivalgoers who can endure the boring film with 5,000 Elevate points. The film premiere revives Virgin’s launch of BLAH Airlines, a parody airline introduced in an online campaign last year, which indirectly mocks “no frills” competitors.
