Panasonic Avionics believes its in-flight television service has received a huge boost in awareness from the FIFA World Cup, estimating that around 40,000 passengers watched live Germany's late win over Argentina in last night's finale.
The company has made sport one of the key elements of its live onboard programming for airlines, which operates using Panasonic's connectivity system. Its service is live on 185 aircraft across nine airlines. This includes widespread installation of global television service onboard including Emirates, Etihad Airways and Lufthansa, the national carrier of the eventual winners Germany, which launched the Panasonic service four years ago.
Panasonic estimates that 1.5 million passengers will have watched the World Cup in-flight during the month long tournament, with around 40,000 watching the final on 13 July. "Passenger have loved it," says Panasonic Avionics' vice-president of global communications services David Bruner, noting that both passengers and airlines alike have seen more value from the system. "Lufthansa has just justified the last four years in one month!"
While increasingly established in markets like Europe and the Middle East, Bruner sees increased interest and take-up of the service among airlines from other regions. "Asia and Latin America have been lagging behind, waiting to see who's going to go first," he says. But, for example, last month Aeromexico opted for Panasonic connectivity services for its Boeing 787s and Bruner says there are now several RFPs in the market from carriers from the two regions.
This, together with the existing programme for further deployment, means penetration of the service will be significantly higher by the time the next global sporting event comes to Brazil in 2016. "By the time we do the Olympics in Rio, it will be on something in region of 1,000 aircraft," says Bruner.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
