Panasonic Avionics is launching major new partnerships to expand its use of data to deliver better passenger experiences and airline revenue. We found out more from Panasonic’s Jon Norris.
Panasonic Avionics recently announced enhancements to its NEXT Marketplace to give airlines new retailing and loyalty options, as well as improving services like in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC). The move is aimed at helping airlines increase ancillary revenue and open up brand new revenue-generating in-flight services.
The NEXT Marketplace allows passengers to shop through seat-back screens and mobile devices. Airlines can now create dynamic retail offerings and promotions.
Partnerships pay
To deliver these services, Panasonic formed a strategic alliance with Gategroup, which serves more than 700 million passengers annually with its retail and catering operations. Gategroup’s involvement will include its technology partner, Black Swan, which will provide data analytics capabilities to enable airlines to develop increasingly targeted in-flight offers.
Jon Norris, Senior, Director, Marketing, Panasonic Avionics, told FINN: “What’s unique is we’ve built an ecosystem which is really cloud- and data-driven. That’s really going to differentiate what we can deliver as a solution to our airlines. So rather than just being focused on IFEC and the entertainment part of it, we’re also adding marketing and loyalty into the mix.”
Data-driven decisions
He said: “The data is really driving decisions for the airline. It could be they’re optimising what they’re selling on board, it could be optimising how they can reduce costs on board, how they can drive engagement for their passengers so it’s critically important.”
“What we’re used to having digitally on the ground with real-time analytics, we’re bringing that now into the aircraft environment,” Norris added.
Panasonic is also setting up a new office in Silicon Valley, and has selected Amazon Web Services (AWS) to help deliver data analytics and insights from its NEXT platform.
Norris said: “That’s really to tap into the rich resource and innovative workforce which is in Silicon Valley. We’ve just started a partnership with Amazon and AWS because they’re powering our data and our approach to data.”
