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      CES 2018: Interactive Mobility’s Flymingo to Take Flight on Air France Next Month

      January 10, 2018  | Written by Valerie Silva
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      Interactive Mobility’s Flymingo platform can be customized for each airline and flight, and personalized for each passenger. Image: Interactive Mobility

      APEX Insight: APEX Media caught up with Interactive Mobility’s co-founder and CEO, Tanguy Morel, on Day One of CES, where the company officially unveiled its wireless IFE solution Flymingo, and confirmed its launch customer.

      flymingo box
      Flymingo can operate autonomously for 15 consecutive hours, while streaming to more than 100 passengers at a time. Image: Interactive Mobility

      Interactive Mobility’s new wireless in-flight entertainment (IFE) platform Flymingo is going to be introduced on Air France starting next month. The service will first be piloted on the French flag carrier’s Paris-Tel Aviv route, before being rolled out on other medium- and long-haul flights.Air Belgium has also placed an order for the service, with some 20 other airlines and airports considering making a similar move.

      Soft launched at APEX EXPO in September, the portable server can provide streaming to more than 100 users simultaneously and operate autonomously for up to 15 hours of consecutive flight. Once on the ground, the box automatically connects to the cloud to get new content and updates and to push data and payments processed in flight off board.

      But interactive Mobility isn’t only offering the hardware: “What we propose is more than a local server and hardware – it is a digital solution,” the company’s co-founder and CEO, Tanguy Morel, explains. “Our platform is completely modular, so all our clients can choose anything, from the type of content – VOD, local press, games and destination content, for example – and, of course, the color and the design can be adapted to any airline.” And unlike traditional seatback IFE, it will allow airlines to retrieve passenger data on a daily basis.

      “We know that realistically most people are only going to use our service once in their lifetime, so we make things as easy as possible.” €” Tanguy Morel, Interactive Mobility

      The company also opted to equip Flymingo with a beacon so that passengers could receive personalized notifications as they board the aircraft. “Wouldn’t it be great for passengers to get notifications from the airline that say,  for example, ‘Welcome on board, Mr. Morel’? They could also push that there is this wireless IFE service on board – it’s another digital touchpoint.”

      Keeping the communication line with passengers open, and ensuring an easy, seamless experience is paramount for this team of self-proclaimed digital natives. “The average age of people working in the company is 25. Sixty percent of the staff are developers and coders and the rest are in design and marketing,” Morel says. “We know that realistically most people are only going to use our services once in their lifetime, so we make things as easy as possible. If my grandmother can use it, I say it’s fine.”