Austrian Airlines Introduces Profile, IFE Personalization Tool From Spafax

August 2, 2017  | Written by Stephanie Taylor

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APEX Insight: Spafax is balancing content exploration and personalized recommendations with its Profile tool to improve the passenger experience even before the plane takes off. Austrian is the latest airline to jump on board.

Austrian Airlines has become the second carrier in the Lufthansa Group to deploy Profile, Spafax’s entertainment personalization platform. Using proprietary software developed by Spafax, Austrian’s passengers can now access a full listing of the airline’s in-flight entertainment (IFE) online to learn what content will be available on their flight. The interactive web experience has been designed to work on any device.

“In 2017, we committed to rolling out in-flight connectivity on our short- and medium-haul flights,” said Thomas Laxar, director, In-Flight Entertainment & Connectivity, Content & Portal at Austrian Airlines. “As part of our digital transformation strategy, we are very pleased to partner with Spafax to take the way we present our entertainment program to our customers to the next level.”

“The launch version of the personalization tool uses a content attribute filtering system which is tuned to an airline’s content strategy.” – Kevin Birchmore, Spafax

Spafax provides an API, which can be used in an airline’s native apps or third-party websites, that allows metadata and content listings to be filtered down to a flight route or flight number and date combination. Director of Sales, Technical Products and Solutions at Spafax, Kevin Birchmore, explains, “The launch version of the personalization tool uses a content attribute filtering system which is tuned to an airline’s content strategy to deliver a targeted content list for that passenger based on what they are viewing and the airline’s content.”

Since Profile’s launch with Lufthansa in early 2016, Birchmore says Spafax has continued to make enhancements to the platform. “Future releases of Profile will provide a method for a passenger to login and store additional  about themselves – like their home airport, favourite actor/actress and more,” he explained. “We are also in conversations with hardware vendors on how to link the service with the seat onboard to create a truly immersive content experience which flows throughout the passenger journey.”

At the Aircraft Interiors Expo in April, Spafax debuted the Spafax Profile Skill for Alexa, which combines its Profile personalization tool with Amazon’s open APIs to create a dynamic voice-activated personal assistant with complete knowledge of an airline’s entertainment offering. Birchmore says it will launch with a customer in the next few months, meaning passengers will be able to ask Alexa about what movies, television shows and music will be available on their upcoming flight. Three more airlines will introduce Profile this year, Birchmore confirms.