Skift Take

The growth of connectivity and entertainment in-flight is both encouraging and impressive. We still feel the birds-eye view from the window is the most thrilling and entertaining thing about being on a plane, but it's great to have something to do when the lights are off.

SITA’s Airline IT Trends Survey reveals that 66% of airlines will offer passengers more wireless choices in-flight by 2018, compared to only 28% today.

We know that the in-flight connectivity market is growing by leaps and bounds, with connectivity suppliers competing to offer greater bandwidth, better connections and more speed. At the same time, in-flight entertainment suppliers are offering better options for both embedded seat-back and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) entertainment.

In fact, there is an overlap between those two technologies, with suppliers on both sides of the product range offering various solutions and enticing airlines to adopt connections with improved operations benefits.

All this activity results in the dramatic improvements which SITA predicts for 2018.

SITA indicates that inflight wireless apps, which provide both entertainment content and destination services, such as bookings for onward travel from the airport, will increase from 6% to 44% by 2018.

In-flight duty free shopping, also supported by airline in-flight wireless apps, will increase from 11% to 47% over the same period.

airline-it-trends-survey-2015_pdf__page_8_of_12_

Source: SITA Airline IT Trends Report/SITA

smartphone

The Daily Newsletter

Our daily coverage of the global travel industry. Written by editors and analysts from across Skift’s brands.

Have a confidential tip for Skift? Get in touch

Tags: inflight entertainment, inflight Wi-Fi, sita

Photo credit: Using JetBlue's current FlyFi product. Anthony Quintano / Flickr

Up Next

Loading next stories