Transforming air travel from ordinary to extraordinary

It’s been a long flight from Amsterdam to Dubai, and now it’s time to board your connecting flight to Melbourne. You turn on the entertainment system to find the movie you were watching at the exact place you left off on your prior flight.

This is one of the big benefits for both passengers and airlines of Thales’s solution allowing airlines to offer a seamless passenger experience. It uses Artificial Intelligence and Big Data to keep track of passenger preferences and offers personalized recommendations that include endless inflight entertainment possibilities, targeted advertising, and shopping.

“If airlines want to win the price war, they need to invest in developing a differentiated flight experience, to make it an engaging, and entirely personalized environment for the passenger,” says Richard Perrot, VP Marketing & Product Policy, IFE activity

The new digital platform enables the jouney to begin when passengers book their airline ticket. Upon arrival at the airport and once identified, the passenger can swiftly proceed to boarding without having to produce ID at each step. Biometrics makes this paperless passenger experience possible. It establishes a certifiable link between travel documents and their holder assuring a match between the person and the digital identity.

A new win-win air travel digital platform

Everyone ultimately benefits from this breakthrough Thales solution, from shorter queues , frictionless and personalised experience for passengers, smoother operations and improved security for airports and border police, and greater efficiency for airlines.

“We transform travel from ordinary to extraordinary,” Perrot says.  “We bridge the gap between the connected world where everything is easily available on our smartphones and the legacy environment of an aircraft. We bring the Internet onboard creating a seamless journey that completely reshapes the crew and passenger experience.”

“We bridge the gap between the connected world where everything is easily available on our smartphones and the legacy environment of an aircraft. " Richard Perrot, VP Marketing & Product Policy, IFE activity

Behind it: Thales Expertise in Air Transport

This is possible because of Thales’s long-standing presence in the airports market as a major player in security and airports operations. Airports are increasingly demanding security solutions that enable, rather than disrupt, their operations. Passenger-related income from retail and food outlets typically accounts for over 40% of an airport’s revenues and up to 80% of profits at some of the largest hubs. So optimizing the passenger pathway and experience is key. Thales has deployed its solutions at JFK, Doha, Dubai and other international airports.

Connectivity extends into the cockpit, where Thales’s efficient and lightweight FlytLINK solution offers pilots dependable, seamlessly smooth high-data-rate communications at any point on the globe. With FlytLINK, pilots will be able to receive much more detailed and accurate in-flight weather information than ever before.

Meanwhile, maintenance teams on the ground can monitor onboard equipment status during the flight, no longer having to wait until the plane is on the tarmac to retrieve and analyze the data collected by the different embedded sensors.

From airport to cockpit and cabin, Thales air travel expertise now offers a seamless flying experience.