APEX in Profile: John White
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John White
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Inflight Dublin
John has been Inflight Dublin’s CEO since 2012, and has 8 years’ experience in the IFE market. He has successfully implemented IFE and ancillary revenue strategies for a range of airlines. Before joining Inflight Dublin, he spent 10 years as a management consultant. John holds an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management.
FAST FACTS
Location: DUB
Now Reading: Miracle in the Andes, Nando Parrado
Favorite Aircraft: 787
Seatback or PED? Seatback
Favorite Social Network: LinkedIn
What trends do you have your eye on, in relation to in-flight entertainment?
It’s not so much a trend, but a challenge. How do airlines optimize the balance between growing ancillary revenues and enhancing the passenger experience? With the technical advancement of seatback platforms and the probability that most aircraft will be connected within the next 10 years, passengers will be able to access a vast number of services. At present, there’s a lot of focus on installing and improving the technology, but once that is done, how should airlines exploit and manage the opportunity that the technology provides? Effective aggregation, innovation and segmentation hold the key success.
“Effective aggregation innovation and segmentation of technology hold the key to success.”
What do you think is the most overlooked aspect of the passenger experience?
Personalization. Compared with other consumer-facing industries, the airline industry has a number of improvement opportunities such as tailored IFE, personalized meal service and individual destination programming. Although airlines have made progress in this area, greater focus on it will yield considerable benefits.
How do content and entertainment expectations change for people when they are traveling?
They increase. Most people who travel are “time poor.” About the only time, they’re “time rich” is when they’re on planes, particularly long-haul. Hence, they want to be entertained with quality content supported by a wide range of service choice.
Every job has a cool factor: What’s yours?
Being the “middle man” between glitzy studios and glamorous airlines… I couldn’t think of two cooler industries to be wedged between!
Something that never ceases to amaze you in your industry?
How global, yet intimate our industry is. What other industry has such a relatively small number of people from so many different countries, faiths and cultures, who know each other and generally enjoy each other’s company?
Best advice you’ve ever received:
Do it now! Whatever you need to do, don’t wait around, get it done now, otherwise you might get left behind.
Something that only a frequent flyer would understand:
How long you realistically have before a flight to arrive at the airport. With hand luggage only, boarding card on your smartphone, and fast-track through security, you can arrive less than an hour before your flight and still have time for breakfast before boarding!
If you weren’t doing your current job, what would you love to be doing?
Formula 1 racing driver – skill, speed, glamour and globetrotting. Unfortunately, globetrotting is the only one of those traits that currently applies to me!
Your top three films of all time?
The Usual Suspects, Argo, and 12 Angry Men.
If you could sit next to anyone on a plane who would it be?
Michael Collins. A historical Irish hero of mine, who was brilliantly portrayed by Liam Neeson in the film of the same name. He was a leader, changed history, and had a great sense of humor. He achieved so much, before being killed at the age of only 31. The fact that he’d never been on a plane would make the journey all the more interesting!
“APEX in Profile: John White” was originally published in the 7.2 April/May issue of APEX Experience magazine.