Continental Airlines temporarily deactivated all of its LiveTV in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems on 20 November after discovering that a small part of the hardware did not meet specifications.
The US major is in the process of equipping its Boeing domestic fleet with LiveTV's latest live television system, LTV3. Some 20 aircraft are have already been retrofitted with the system.
"We voluntarily deactivated the system and are performing some modifications to it and one aircraft is up and running [with the system] again. It was a relatively uncomplicated fix," says a Continental spokeswoman, who could not provide specific details of the problem or the fix.
She says, however, that the modification "only affects Boeing 737-900ERs and 737-800s", which have been equipped with LiveTV.
The remaining systems "should be back and running by the end of November", says the spokeswoman, adding: "We're reviewing each aircraft and as each is reviewed and modified it goes back on."
LiveTV declined to comment.
The JetBlue Airways subsidiary's next generation LTV3 system offers 77 live television channels. It will soon bring nearly 100 channels of in-flight live television to Continental's Boeing aircraft, after its satellite television partner DIRECTV inked a content deal with Viacom for rights to an additional 18 channels.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
