Thales InFlyt Floats Airline Management on the Cloud to Streamline Operations
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APEX Insight: At APEX EXPO this year, Thales showcased cloud-based tools for airline operations. From flight analytics to in-flight entertainment performance, Thales’ InFlytCloud and InFlyt Experience Application Portal give airlines more control over data and content management.
At APEX EXPO this year, Thales showcased cloud-based tools that give airlines more control over data and content management: InFlytCloud, to oversee airline operations, and InFlyt Experience Application Portal, to browse apps for Thales’ AVANT in-flight entertainment system. “As we become more of a data-driven company, we want to give this functionality to the airlines,” said Tracy Decuir, VP, Business Infrastructures and Services at Thales.
InFlytCloud gathers all airline operations- and passenger experience-related data into one portal, with the ability to segment that information by user. For example, an IFE manager’s dashboard on InFlytCloud could display the most-played entertainment titles, revenue from pay-per-view and corrupt movie files, while an airline executive’s dashboard could show seat capacity, best or worst performing routes and compare statistics by region.
“As we become more of a data-driven company, we want to give this functionality to the airlines.” – Tracy Decuir, Thales
“All this data can be configured and massaged to what is most important to show,” says Christopher Allirot, senior product line manager, Media Services. “With the availability of the data we have today, there’s a lot of analytics we can apply to it and provide airlines with the information they need to correct either their content or maintenance issues.” And with a connected aircraft, the data could even be made available in real time.
Since the platform is designed to be used by airline staff at all levels, user experience and collaboration capabilities are top priorities. Staff can communicate with each other and track conversation history on InFlytCloud, much like on a messaging app. “We want this to be a tool,” says Allirot, “so it’s not just feeding you information, it acts on that information and uses it to your advantage.”
While Thales hopes to bring InFlytCloud to market next year, the company has launched its InFlyt Experience Application Portal, an app store for airlines flying with Thales’ AVANT in-flight entertainment system. Previously, there was a year-long window between when apps were released to market on the ground and when they were offered on board. Now, airlines will be able to refresh in-flight games, menus, shopping applications and moving apps more frequently, with more than 147 apps (and counting) to choose from.
“This is going to be one factor that’s really going to differentiate things in the future: the ability to add applications and games to our catalogue,” says Allirot. What sets Thales’ InFlyt Experience Application Portal apart from competitors is its simplified certification process for app developers, pushing quicker updates and releases.
“We’ve had other vendors that are proposing their own shopping applications,” says Allirot. “Airlines have expressed interest in them. So they’ve come to us and are talking about integrating with us.”