It’s a generally held belief that the majority of airline passengers who are exposed to inflight entertainment view the moving map at some point during their flight, making it the most popular show in the air.

“Evidence [shows] that passengers get a great deal of comfort out of knowing where they are,” Airborne Interactive CEO Ian Walberg told attendees at a recent APEX educational event in London. “Maps answer the question: ‘Is the torture complete?’” he quipped.

The public generally perceives maps to be free. Whether offered on a personal electronic device (PED) or via IFE, maps have become “a commodity and delivery channel that appears to have no charge associated with it”, says Walberg. Of course, he says, that perception is misplaced, which is why industry stakeholders are exploring ways that airlines can more fully drive ancillary revenue and advertising dollars from moving maps.

Of course, we all know nothing is truly free in this world.

For the longest time I can remember, that moving map has always been an integral part of the flying experience. The first time I ever laid my eyes on one was on a Boeing 747, where it was presented only in a cinematic setting for the entire section of a cabin to experience (little boys and girls who only knows seat-back displays, that luxury did not exist back at the time).

Eventually, this was made more exclusive once on-board in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems became accessible at (virtually) arms reach, where a moving map “channel” became available. With Singapore Airlines, the first-generation Wiseman IFE systems had this showing on video channel 99.

But it has only been recently where the moving map software received a noticeable upgrade, specifically with how some information is now presented more “picturesquely” (that is, more graphically in pictures and/or diagrams), and even with different geographical point-of-views (or visual perspective) too.

So far, this freedom of information hasn’t only been comforting for some, it has also become a right. If a particular airline wishes to add a revenue-generation aspect to it, the design should not hinder the current user experience of the moving map. We all know well what happens once commercialisation overtakes true practicality.

With that said, I also believe the moving map product/service can most certainly become interactive, and successfully add greater value to the overall passenger, or more specifically the traveller’s, experience via various means.

While travellers with a hearty appetite might rate the small plates as just an entree, these downsized dishes are a welcome alternative meal for people who’d prefer to graze more lightly during the flight.

It’s typical, for those of us flying, to stuff ourselves full of food because of the in-flight meals we get provided with.

I, for one, do not like wasting food and would not like to leave anything on the tray before it is finally collected. But as an experienced traveller, I consciously space out my meal times before a flight, and therefore this issue doesn’t really affect me most of the times.

Then, there are those who find it challenging to even finish the different food items on the tray, which ends up being left over and wasted.

For a business class meal service, like the aforementioned, it’s possible to easily make changes to the meal portion sizes, where they are individually prepared and plated in the galley. However, economy class meals are pretty much all set up at the catering facility, and is served immediately from trolley to tray table — which makes it virtually impossible to make similar variations.

Yet, being in economy does allow you to refuse your meal (although it won’t get served to you again later due to health and safety regulations), or even the choice to forego some of the items on the tray (for example: the hot meal, the bread).

This may not be public knowledge, but it could probably be stated on the menu as a possibility, perhaps?

I’m all for eating well — and flying well too! But, ironically, I don’t like letting food go to waste either.

As airlines around the world search for new ways to put a little more of your money into their pockets, Etihad Airways has come up with a novel concept that not even ‘king of the extras’ Ryanair has nutted out.

Etihad is adding a ‘Peak Day of Week’ surcharge onto flights which depart on a Friday or Saturday.

Who would’ve thought!

(Makes good sense though…)

Travelers who want Wi-Fi in the air cannot always tell if a plane will have Internet service when they book their tickets. Prices for service are still evolving, and the quality of the connection does not come close to matching what most people are used to on the ground.

The questions regarding in-flight wireless Internet are many. This article addresses these, as well as pointing out various concerns relating to its availability, usability, and — specifically — the expectations regarding its overall performance.

The competition watchdog has called for Australia’s biggest airports to boost their investment in terminals and other facilities to cope with surging demand.

In its annual report on the state of the airports, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission found that service at the five largest airports – Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide – had deteriorated in 2011-12 on the prior financial year. It named Sydney Airport as the worst offender given the ”pattern of price and earnings increases, lower service standards and low investment levels compared with other airports”.

Mildly insulting to passengers, or its customers, especially if you knew how commercialised the major airports in Australia have become — especially Sydney Airport (they make you walk through duty free before clearing immigration on arrival, and after when departing!)

Actually, don’t get me started on this topic. There are so many things about SYD that I can complain about, it’ll bore you to tears.

TSA’s original plan to lift the ban on 6cm (2.36in) knives in carry-on bags drew sharp criticism from flight attendants unions, who decried the agency’s action as poor and shortsighted.

Once again, the airline unions have the (seemingly) sole power to move the earth.

In the past five years[,] orders for low-calorie meals has increased 300 percent and orders for low cholesterol meals rose by 181 percent, according to new data released by Cathay Pacific.

Even without the official data, it’s not surprising to find such an increase in this trend, given how the world has seen a progressive change in food consumption habits.

Arguably, this shift has been around for much longer (than just the past five years). But the lead-time by the different airlines’ adoption of these meals, plus the knowledge of availability by passengers, would’ve been plausible factors leading to this result.

In any case, the greater food options is a positive win for the passenger experience in general — that is, on airlines that offer such dietary food options…

(Hat-tip to Nikos of @inflightFeed for always bringing foodie-related tweets to my attention! :)

Last week saw the 2013 edition of the Aircraft Interiors Expo, hosted by the city of Hamburg. FTE was excited to be in attendance, and in addition to the huge array of stands and booths showcasing some of the latest innovations and technologies set to take to the skies in the not-too-distant future, there was also a wide array of fascinating talks from industry leaders. Here’s some of the trends we’ve learned to be on the lookout for, courtesy of some of the most informed sources in the business.

Another good read if you’re a bit lazy with having to dig and keep track of Twitter or RSS feeds.

The shift to personalisation is, and has been, very real. It may not have been so obvious before. But carriers are slowing realising the value of making such changes to improve upon the overall passenger experience — like making things feel less clinical, for example? :)

Brace yourself. For the first time ever B/E showed off its modular lavatory for the Boeing 737.

Seeing is believing!

(And I still think my eyes are playing tricks…!)

In a bid to address this issue, British Airways has just started a programme to collect and recycle aluminium cans on its inbound long-haul London Heathrow services, and other airlines appear to be following suit.

Strict European Union regulations mean that all cabin waste from non-EU countries “has to be incinerated or land-filled”, BA head of environment Jonathon Counsell tells the APEX editor’s blog. “The key is to separate food waste from recyclables.”

Apparently, BA has been doing this on their short-haul flights for a couple of years already (goes to show how I’ve not had the pleasure of flying with them!), and which has led to this eventual initiation on their long-haul flights into London Heathrow.

What’s great also? Other airlines also wanting in on the idea. It can only be so…

A very interesting read, well worth your five-minutes over that tea or coffee.

As the airline suffered a nationwide computer outage on Tuesday, social media became the go-to source for information on the carrier’s progress. The company tweeted updates about the outage, and responded to voluminous tweets from customers, resolving issues and wishing passengers safe travels.

Social media saves the day again for American Airlines — considering how Facebook and Twitter are now two well-established ways of getting the message (or news) out there.

According to the article (a good quick-read), the situation at some locations wasn’t perfect, specifically relating to inconsistent messages on situational updates. Granted that everyone involved should be singing the same tune, there would surely be loose ends.

Hopefully, experiences over time will bring improvements to such procedures.

I have personally found American Airlines’ Twitter account to take on a rather robotic personality — one that I very much dislike because of its seemingly inferior nature come conversation and engagement. But this time round, AA may have actually proven itself to be worthy of some praise…

As promised, Panasonic unveiled the world’s first global in-flight Tweetathon at the AIX 2013 Show in Hamburg yesterday afternoon and, by any standard, it was hugely successful. Titled High5Live, the event featured passengers on six different airplanes [t]weeting to their hearts content via Panasonic Avionics’ technology.

“By any standard”, although politically-correct, isn’t exactly a realistic assessment. Why? Because no one else has done anything of the like ever before… (and, hence, there is no real comparison.)

I was on-the-ground at this year’s AIX, an active participant of the #High5Live event, and had the chance to personally meet up with two of the people behind the Panasonic Avionics tweets at the show.

In my opinion, this unprecedented event was indeed interesting. However, I felt that while all the preparatory work may have been properly done, it lacked a significant-enough following during the course of the tweetathon.

Most of the different participants, flying different aircraft fitted with the Panasonic connectivity technology, did a great job at pushing relevant and interesting tweets out. But if there was only a slightly-greater following, I am sure there would’ve been a far-greater level of conversation.

The relationship between the number of people holding a conversation and the level of interaction simply can’t be measured with a straight-line approach. There are those qualitative factors, including behavioural and personality traits, that can affect this final outcome.

Also, Panasonic Avionics had provided the Twitter world with, regarding the tweetathon, too short a notice, and there didn’t seem to be enough noise made about it for the greater audience to realise such an impending event was approaching. As a very-frequent Twitter user myself, I almost forgot about the tweetathon until just before it began — which was also when the Panasonic Avionics account began pumping tweets with the #High5Live hashtag.

But at the end of the day, yesterday’s High5Live event was about demonstrating the true breadth of Panasonic’s coverage. “We have more OEM offerable systems, more SDC’s, more global coverage and more regulatory approvals than anybody else to do IFE,” says James. “Our customers operate globally and they want us to offer them a service anywhere they fly.”

I suppose it did. But it also seemed to have missed out on the opportunity of branding itself, clearly, as a leading provider of in-flight connectivity whatever on aeroplanes. Manufacturers are too obsessed with trying to please their direct customers, and not realising the potential of how end-users can breathe life into a brand or idea.

At the end of the day, this PR exercise simply proved that certain aircraft are indeed connected to the Internet whilst in-the-air — not something that many of us didn’t already know. It may raise awareness of how such on-board connectivity systems can be put into practical use. But that was pretty much it.

Will there be a second tweetathon?

If the answer is yes, then I hope more planning will go into making it a possibly-greater success — an event that’s about everyone, and not simply directed towards proving its potential as a concept or product.

Airbus has confirmed that seat manufacturer EADS-Sogerma will offer an A350-optimised premium economy seat, offering an “innovative cradle seat”, with “a high level of comfort at an efficient pitch”.

The Celeste seat will be offered to carriers as part of the A350 XWB Catalogue, which also includes a premium economy seat manufactured by Zodiac Seats.

According to Airbus, EADS-Sogerma has optimised its Celeste seats for the forthcoming long-haul aircraft, offering “an innovative cradle seat which provides premium economy passengers with a high level of comfort at an efficient pitch”.

Not sure about the “high level of comfort” on this cradle seat design, or how the “at an efficient pitch” comes into play.

Doesn’t look as comfy as what we’d normally see from seat manufacturers.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves — choice is always good!

Recaro is debuting a new long-haul economy class seat at the show and is pursuing certification for pitch of 29in, the first time the company has aimed to gain approval for offering a pitch in that range.

Company CEO Mark Hiller tells the APEX editor’s blog that customers are not pushing for the smaller pitch, but Recaro opted to gain certification for a pitch ranging from 29in to 36in.

I don’t doubt the seat will be as-comfortable after all the necessary comfort modifications have been applied by Recaro.

But for the CEO to say they’re not “pushing for the smaller pitch”, while opting to gain the certification, is like saying “we didn’t really want to, but we had to do it…”.

Translation: Airlines want more choice.

First class cabins still have a future but will have to become more luxurious as business class increasingly takes on the attributes of the old first class, according to Lufthansa head of product management and airport passenger services, Joachim Schneider.

The German carrier is not looking at moving away from offering a first class cabin on certain routes but believes that a new “super first class”, which offers passengers “complete insulation in a room”, is “going to be an important trend in the future”, Schneider told delegates at a conference session preceding the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg.

Did someone conveniently forget about Singapore Airlines’ Suites product, which has been in existence since the introduction of their first Airbus A380 superjumbo aircraft back in October of 2007?

For an airline with very-average-only cabin products, Lufthansa has come out speaking the obvious and showing off their ignorance.

Fortunately I’d been kept up to date on these delays by Air Canada’s SMS alert system, so I left the office early afternoon instead of rocking up for a 9.30am checkin and spending the better part of the day in the airport. And lounge access, even when it’s Air New Zealand’s Sydney Koru Club Lounge, always softens the blow.

When it finally came time to board the flight, I noticed two Air Canada crew at the gate handing out cards offering delayed travellers a discount on future AC travel.

These are examples of some of the measures certain airlines take for major flight delays. In the case of Air Canada’s AC34, a 14-hour flight northward across the vast Pacific Ocean, it was only appropriate for the airline to offer up-to-the-minute pre-flight information for its passengers — while the offering of a discount on future travels with the airline was more about, in my opinion, maintaining a positive brand image.

The bottom-line requirement that all airlines should focus upon is maintaining their customer’s composure as best as possible when unexpected events occur. Obviously, not every passenger has the same expectations and understanding when it comes to such events. But where significant efforts are made to best rectify the situation at hand, most people will ultimately come to an understand or consensus — and vice-versa.

I had an interesting experience around a year ago, when my Singapore Airlines flight suffered a major technical issue in-flight, and was required to return to Singapore after almost four hours out. There were several unnecessarily-angry passengers, mostly businessmen, who got themselves worked up about the delay — a delay which was also affecting 300-plus other passengers, like myself, all patiently waiting for a replacement aircraft to bring us to our ultimate destinations.

(During the wait back in Singapore, people were offered refreshments at the gate area, and phone cards for people who needed to contact family and friends about the impending delay.)

In the end, the flight was 12 hours late. Singapore Airlines rebooked pretty much everyone who had an air-based connection onto respective flights. For those who had other arrangements, such as accommodation, transport, etc., they were asked to retain a copy of those receipts for reimbursement due to the flight delay.

I ended up having to claim for my train ticket and a night’s worth of hotel because I wasn’t able to utilise these due to the flight delay.

However, Singapore Airlines has yet to offer any kind of reimbursement, after having submitted all the necessary paperwork to the relevant department — twice. I’m not even sure what’s the status of my claim, because no one has bothered to return my calls or emails (after having made numerous enquiries about it!)

When companies make it a challenging feat for customers to offer their patronage, this is a clear (and inviting) sign of the customer being shown the door, never having to return.

Marketing 101: Acquiring a new customer is far more costly than maintaining an existing one, both intrinsically and extrinsically.

We just flew through London-City for the first time and came out of the experience a little more hopeful for the future of air travel. It’s true they have some freedom to experiment because the airport is tiny, the passengers are mostly frequent flying professionals, and the flights are mostly limited to Europe, but that’s all the more reason to detour away from the mega airports to try City’s particularly civilized “boutique” airport experience.

Theoretically, there shouldn’t be any reason why airports have to be so emotionally- and mentally-challenging to experience and manoeuvre. It is true that we’re living in a world of heightened security, especially where air travel is concerned.

Granted that London City is the smallest of the London-based airports, which gives them the distinct advantage of easily incorporate changes to approved processes for the purposes of improving efficiency and (possibly, even) economy. Yet, this is no excuse for the larger-sized airports to remain complacent with the true needs and wants of their customers (or passengers).

London Heathrow Airport may be the biggest and has (virtually) all of the major international airlines serving it. But I would try to avoid this airport whenever it is physically possible, and willing to enter Europe through another city — say, Frankfurt or Paris. Why should I, a paying passenger, have to put up with the ignorance of an airport operator which deems their customers’ expectations as irrelevant?

Helsinki Airport is one good example of a larger-sized (or international) airport that have implemented various measures to improve passenger experience. Some of these include the improved security checkpoints, reduced times for transiting passengers, and a very-usable free Wi-Fi offering throughout the terminal (on both air- and land-side).

With the availability of greater airport and airline options, consumers are beginning to realise and understand the concept of greater choice come air travel. However, it’s still a complicated mess that needs some practice before the art of airport bingo becomes second-nature (for example, frequent flyers).

Shame on you, airports-that-couldn’t-care-less-about-our-personal-experiences!

Air Baltic are releasing a new food ordering system online which will allow passengers  to drag and drop their preferred meal items onto their airline tray and create their own inflight meal!

It has never been any simpler to construct your own personalised meal.

Anyone who cares even the least for the food they eat — and takes planes — should check this out.

You may not get to try it just yet — but it certainly does give us ideas!

Airlines are increasingly [organising] onboard events for passengers flying on festive days such as Christmas Day, Valentines Day or national holidays. These kind of experiental initiatives resonate with passengers as they give an extra dimension to their flight, and if the airline really makes an effort, the news will spread fast via social media, providing the airline with some relevant exposure.

The article is absolutely right about how such events can and “will spread fast via social media”, and providing the airline with “relevant exposure” — with relevant being the operative word.

I’m sure the organisers of such extracurricular activities realise the dire importance of getting it right, especially when the involvement of social media (being a double-edged sword) is expected.

A good short-but-sweet read, with briefs of past examples. However, none of these rung any bells… (must’ve been a Facebook-versus-Twitter thing!)

But according to this BBC News Magazine article, the practice does occur:

Parents taking infants on long flights are turning to medication to help their children sleep. But is the practice safe – or a dangerous abuse of parental power?

[…]

Parents who medicate their babies and toddlers with allergy or cough medicine on long flights say it helps the children sleep in increasingly cramped planes and helps combat jetlag. It is a polarising topic on parenting blogs, with debates often turning nasty.

Those kids which get noisy on flights do become quite an annoyance to other fellow passengers. But yet, going this far for the sake of not looking like a bad parent is, to be very honest, ridiculous and irresponsible.

A somewhat interesting read. Make your own conclusions.

Hat tip to @starflyergold for mentioning this story via Twitter.