Inflight Shoppertainment really has taken off since SKYDeals demonstrated the concept at AIX 18. The idea of making shopping entertaining and fun for passengers has been adopted by Air France, SKYDeals’ chief executive officer Julien Sivan reports.
“In January this year, Air France launched the product on long-haul flight and has since introduced it on medium- and short-haul sectors,” Sivan says. “It has been interesting to watch the passengers’ responses to it. While you might expect long-haul passengers, with more time, to be the main users, the uptake has been higher on medium- and short-haul. This is because passengers on these flights like to remain connected, but don’t have time to watch a movie – so there is no competition from the entertainment.”
Air France so far has Shoppertainment on 20 long-haul aircraft and six aircraft operating shorter flights. Soon it will be joined by all-business class carrier La Compagnie, which launches the service in June. “We also have two other airlines – one in Asia and one in Europe – lined up for launches in the second half of this year,” Sivan says.
Shoppertainment is a passenger-centric marketplace that allows brands, travel retailers and destination services to reach passengers with a variety of offers. “We even have some which are flight-related. Here, a product associated with a certain location on a route might be put on offer only for the time when the aircraft is passing over that geographic region,” Sivan says.
The next initiative for SKYDeals is a pilot programme with four airports. Until now purchases have been delivered to the buyer’s home, but Sivan wants to allow passengers to receive their goods at the arrival gate.
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Source: Flight Daily News
