Spafax is now offering ‘lounge streaming’ to premium passengers, so that they can begin accessing content in the airline lounge and continue watching their choice on the aircraft.
According to Dimitrios Tsirangelos, the company’s vice-president – business development, technology and innovation, this is an early move towards giving airline loyalty members a better service. “We are also thinking of extending this outside of the lounge,” he notes.
The company began tentatively doing that in 2023, when it provided a customer with a specific streaming solution for children’s content at the gate the airline was serving, where it had passengers ready to board. “That is a very specific, niche product for kids. However, we always start with the proof of concept in smaller groups or perhaps at one airport, and then we extend the offering when the airlines see the added value of those products and ideas.”
These products and services align with Spafax’s main vision of the connected passenger receiving personalised offerings throughout a journey.
“We develop and offer products that are available at home, on the way to the airport, in the airport, in the lounge, on board of the aircraft, in the destination. Think about all the places you pass through on a journey. The holistic cycle has around 200 to 250 touchpoints where the airline can affect the passenger, can engage the passenger,” Tsirangelos remarks.
“We want to enhance the passenger experience by offering new formats of content, because for the last 40 years, we have been offering video and audio. What are different formats? There are applications all over the place – VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), mixed reality and more.
“They are not necessarily 100% applicable and useful inside an aircraft, but certainly fit with our engagement with the passengers that happens before and after the flight. One example is virtual destination guides that you can use or maybe download before the flight,” he explains.
