The Power of Innovation, AI, and Accessibility: An 18-Month Vision from FlightPath3D’s President
Picture this…
You’ve just taken off, are settled in your seat and “Hello, I’m Luci your inflight assistant” displays on the screen. She begins to share updates about your flight status and what you’re flying over with recommendations for the best activities to do at your destination. Later you see flight options from your home airport sparking ideas for your next trip and loyalty offers from the airline.
You sync your mobile device to the seatback screen to save trip itineraries and your children are occupied with geographic, education-based map games. You observe the passenger next to you using the high-contrast accessibility map with voice narration to get the same great experience.
This is the future I envision for the passengers we are building for.
Boosting Passenger Engagement at Every Interaction
On the heels of announcing we surpassed 5,000 aircraft flying with our technology on board, I want to share our vision for the next 18 months. The next generation of our products are going to redefine the inflight map experience with unparalleled accessibility and AI-driven journey intelligence, creating a smarter, more connected experience.
Delivering this won't be without challenges as we push boundaries and venture into new territories. Here are the three key pillars guiding FlightPath3D’s new feature development to improve the passenger experience.
1. Meet Luci: Bringing intelligence to the inflight experience
Our Flight Companion, Luci, makes suggestions throughout the trip. This is not just a roll of pre-set advertisements. Luci considers the details of aircraft location, destination, as well as the airline's flight schedules and priorities. This ensures that the information provided is tailored and contextually relevant to each passenger's journey.
Delta’s Managing Director of Customer Experience, Ekrem Dimbiloglu, captured the essence of this best in Hamburg saying, “Your AI product and its ability to tell all the great things that Delta has available to its customers inflight is the name of the game and really excites me.”
Key strategies:
Create more intelligent maps: Provide real-time flight information, such as distance, time to destination, and ground speed, through our AI-powered maps. Augmented with details about historical cities, landmarks, and natural wonders below the flight path makes every trip more engaging.
Provide destination suggestions: Recommend activities and attractions based on the route and destination that promotes exploration upon landing.
Inspire the next adventure: Help travelers plan their next getaway while on the way home from the current trip with contextual data about the passenger and flight, combined with airline route details.
Evolve passenger loyalty: Deliver personalized loyalty offers and promotions, driven by your frequent flyer program, offering additional value to travelers.
Capture passenger intelligence: Aid airlines in understanding trending destinations, popular routes, and traveler interests for improving revenue management and customizing marketing efforts.
2. Create inclusive journeys with maps for EVERY traveler
By developing and implementing inclusive, accessible maps we aim to set new industry standards for accessibility and personalized inflight entertainment.
Key strategies:
Create more accessible maps: Deliver maps with features that cater to individuals with disabilities, ensuring ADA and ACAA compliance.
Increase youth engagement: Introduce interactive and educational map features specifically designed for children, such as our new Kids Map.
Deliver family-friendly features: Develop and promote an experience that can be applied to friends and family, like our trip itinerary and route sharing features.
3. Ensure consistent, exceptional experiences everywhere
With a superior cloud hosting infrastructure and diverse application offerings we can provide our services across seatback systems, web interfaces, and mobile devices, ensuring a consistent user experience both in-flight and on the ground. This enables deploying our apps and collecting data anywhere in the world.
Key strategies:
Continued platform compatibility: Ensure our services run smoothly on all aircraft and ground systems, today and tomorrow. Our solutions are now compatible with leading IFE platforms like Panasonic, Safran, Thales, Viasat, Anuvu, and more.
Flexible integration: Utilize APIs and SDKs to create adaptable experiences that can be integrated anywhere.
Enhance the user experience: Focus on the responsiveness and functionality of our inflight maps and content across all devices, including large tablets and small smartphones, to provide a seamless and user-friendly experience.
Integrate mobile and seatback: Offer seamless syncing between mobile devices and seatback screens, allowing passengers to start an activity on one device and continue on another. This includes using QR codes on seatback screens to save trip itineraries on mobile devices.
Moving quickly will have a material impact
As an independent software company, we pride ourselves on being small, nimble, and incredibly focused on our customers. We are mindful with our resources, iterate fast, and deliver real products that get up and flying.
We have several new features available as standalone apps that will be flying over the next 18 months. We expect our AI feed to deploy on 2,000 aircraft in that time and aim to bring our accessibility map to as many airlines as possible to create the inclusive journey we’re striving for.
I am incredibly grateful for the dedication and hard work of our team and the unwavering support of our airline and OEM partners. Our commitment to excellence and continuous improvement will ensure that we not only meet, but exceed the expectations of our airline partners and their passengers.
Thank you for your continued support and partnership.
Warm regards,
Duncan
