The AIR Series product will provide flydubai passengers with in-flight connectivity, access to a library of local and foreign movies, TV shows and other media that can be accessed from either seatback or personal electronic devices. “The unique factor about flydubai is we’re going to be updating not only the content that you can view on a handheld device, but we’ll be updating the content for their seatback systems as well,” explains Dave Davis, CEO of GEE.
Support for data retrieval and operations data to help the airline stay competitive will also be enabled through this channel. “[The data solution] is collecting operating data from the aircraft and transmitting it to the ground for use by the airline and operation,” elaborates Davis.
With GEE’s broadband AIRConnect, which employs Ku-band satellite hardware to provide gate-to-gate connectivity, flydubai will be able to refresh its seatback entertainment programming wirelessly – another first in the airline industry, as highlighted by Walé Adepoju, chief commercial officer at GEE: “It is a major first step and this will be a first in the Middle East. And for an airline that flies slightly shorter routes than the legacy carrier, that’s quite important… that means that the customers, once they get on board, can theoretically start to use the service.”
And if a passengers flying onboard the new fleet chose to use the seatback system they might be pleasantly surprised to find a familiar user interface available to them: the Lumexis Fiber-To-The-Screen (FTTS) In-Flight Entertainment system, flying with the airline since 2010 and recently renewed. “Being the launch customer for the FTTS system, we were very happy with what it had to offer and we look forward to rolling out the new 4th generation of the system which will enter service with flydubai from May 2016,” said Daniel Kerrison, flydubai’s vice-president, Inflight Product in a press release.
Lumexis’ FTTS 4th Generation system features:
- Android operating system
- Mobile quad-core processor
- Multi-touch pinch and zoom HD screen
- 2.1A USB outlet (reversible) to charge passengers’ PEDs
In the past few months, the low-cost Gulf carrier has expanded its route network to include more destinations in Iran, Pakistan and Russia. Those announcements are matched by calls for additional airline crew and a partnership with Radixx International to boost its customer service on the web.
“The unique factor about flydubai is we’re going to be updating not only the content that you can view on a handheld device, but we’ll be updating the content for their seatback systems as well.” – Dave Davis, CEO at GEE
Launched in 2009, flydubai, which has a fleet of 48 aircraft, with more than 100 Boeing 737-800s expected to join by the end of 2023. Rollout of GEE’s AIRConnect services will begin later this year.
Although the news of an expanded service for flydubai is exciting for the airline, Davis says further announcements relating to the deployment of AIRConnect are coming soon: “It truly is a complete connected aircraft solution, content, connectivity, operations information and some other features that we’ll be talking about in the weeks ahead.”
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