Eurowings Discover, the long-haul leisure airline subsidiary of Lufthansa Group, has entered into a wide-ranging partnership with AerQ to develop new IFEC functions that will improve the passenger experience on its fleet of A320 and A330 aircraft – and generate additional revenues.
The airline will implement AerQ’s Aerena open IT platform to introduce digital cabin innovations throughout the travel journey intended to facilitate greater passenger satisfaction and engagement onboard the aircraft.
“Through smart data capturing, analytics, and matching, we can learn about the passengers’ entertainment demands and address them specifically”, said Maximilian Meintgens, Eurowings Discover’s director of product & marketing. “Continuous development of onboard entertainment is at the core of our product strategy.”
Meintgens added, “Passengers want their flights to be as comfortable and entertaining as possible. This is especially true on our medium-haul flights where passengers are less likely to want to view content on smaller personal device screens, deal with power issues, and juggle seat real estate for where to place their devices. The partnership between AerQ and Eurowings Discover makes the time onboard more valuable for passengers.”
The fully-fledged Aerena in-seat system will be supported by a state-of-the-art cloud-based infrastructure, initially due to be trialled on one A320 test aircraft in 2023.
The Aerena system will enable rapid updates of all content, whether it is AVOD, the graphical user interface (GUI) or any application to improve passenger experience and engagement.
“With Aerena, Eurowings Discover can customise its on-board product and truly differentiate from competitors”, explained Son Yob (Louis) Pak, co-managing director at AerQ, “The carrier can personalise the passenger’s encounter. For instance, if you prefer to watch action movies, you can see the related content on your screen. This way airlines will be more than a means of transport, but will bring meaning, joy and value to journeys across their fleets.”
The platform will also open new revenue opportunities for Eurowings Discover, with the partner base of the airline and AerQ enabling data-driven selections, mobile device integration and ancillary revenues such as advertising, gaming, destination content, etc.
