Panasonic Inflight Connectivity Selected by ZIPAIR, New Dates Announced For AIX Hamburg, Crystal Cabin Award Nominations Open and More News

ZIPAIR Selects Panasonic Avionics Connectivity

ZIPAIR, the new Japanese middle-long haul carrier, has selected Panasonic Avionics Corporation (Panasonic) to provide inflight connectivity (IFC) solutions for its Boeing 787-8 aircraft.

ZIPAIR’s B787s will be fitted with Panasonic’s inflight Wi-Fi service. Panasonic’s next generation connectivity enables a host of connectivity benefits, from fast internet to video streaming, all powered by its new satellite modem featuring bandwidth up to twenty times greater than previously available.

The announcement marks the beginning of Panasonic’s relationship with ZIPAIR, the new Japanese low-cost carrier which is a 100% subsidiary of Japan Airlines.

Shingo Nishida, President of ZIPAIR, said: “By making the most of inflight Wi-Fi services provided by Panasonic Avionics, we hope to become an airline that gives customers the freedom to spend time on the plane in their own personal way and that makes flight time feel short.”

Ken Sain, Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic Avionics Corporation, said: “We’re thrilled to be partnering with ZIPAIR to enhance their passenger experience with our world-class inflight connectivity. Our advanced inflight solutions will help ZIPAIR drive brand loyalty, encouraging their passengers to return time and again.”

ZIPAIR was established in 2018. It is a low-cost carrier and is due to operate medium to long-haul international flights. It currently operates a fleet consisting of two Boeing 787-8s, transferred from its parent’s fleet.

Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX) and World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo (WTCE) Announce They Will Bring the Industry Together in Hamburg in September 2021

Reed Exhibitions, the organizer of the leading events for the global cabin interiors and inflight services industry, has today announced new dates for 2021. Both AIX and WTCE will return to the Hamburg Messe from 31 August to 2 September 2021, moving from the original April dates.

This early announcement allows time for businesses to adapt and plan to ensure that the events continue their critical role in bringing the global industry together again.

Speaking about the announcement, Polly Magraw, Exhibition Director, Aircraft Interiors Expo and World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo, said: “After consulting with exhibitors and airlines, we recognise the industry needs more time to allow for the reopening of borders, lifting of travel restrictions and resuming of services. It is clear that the industry needs to meet in person later in 2021. Our priority is to deliver an engaging and COVID-secure face-to-face event in September that gives our exhibitors and visitors the additional time to adapt and continue on the path to recovery.

“We once again want to thank all of our exhibitors, visitors, and partners for their support.”

“Now, more than ever, there is a strong need to reunite, connect and do business. The importance of AIX and WTCE cannot be underestimated as the largest marketplace that brings together key stakeholders from the global supply chain. We are confident that this decision best supports the industry, and in September we will be ready to regroup and look ahead to the future.

“The majority of exhibitors have already confirmed their participation at the face-to-face events in 2021, and we continue to focus on keeping the industry connected during this time, fostering collaboration, promoting new innovative solutions and helping to nurture critical business contacts. We look forward to facilitating this through a further series of virtual events, set to take place in April, details of which will be announced soon.

“We once again want to thank all of our exhibitors, visitors, and partners for their support. We believe this extra time ahead of the 2021 events will offer exhibitors reassurance and more opportunity to prepare their fantastic showcases, and for our visitors to be ready to restart planning for the cabins of the future.”

For updates and further information, please visit the Aircraft Interiors Expo website or the World Travel Catering & Onboard Services Expo website.

Crystal Cabin Award: Now Open for Submissions

Entry period for new Crystal Cabin Award special categories begins, open until 12 January 2021.

Innovations that make passengers feel safe and other ideas to make air travel attractive: the entry period for the two Crystal Cabin Award special categories, “Clean & Safe Air Travel” and “Judges’ Choice Award”, has begun. Manufacturers, suppliers, researchers, students, design agencies and airlines can submit their concepts directly at www.crystal-cabin-award.com until 12 January 2021. The winners in the two special categories will be announced in parallel with the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg next year.

“Clean & Safe Air Travel” is open to all on-board innovations focusing on hygiene and safety standards for passengers and crew. Entries must be implementable within two years, and the concepts should not be more than one year old. Concepts and products that have already been entered in a different CCA category in the past are excluded.

The “Judges’ Choice Award” is aimed at innovations for the cabin not explicity focused on health and safety, which could normally have been submitted in one of the eight main categories: Cabin Concepts, Cabin Systems, In-Flight Entertainment and Connectivity, Passenger Comfort Hardware, Material & Components, Greener Cabin, University, Visionary Concepts. Here, too, it must be possible to implement the innovations within two years. Up to three innovations may be submitted.

Both categories are also open for student submissions.

Entries for the two special categories may be lodged online now www.crystal-cabin-award.com.

These two categories are part of the independent Crystal Cabin Award Association’s response to the impact of the global Covid-19 pandemic on the civil aviation industry. An international task force with representatives of the almost 30 experts on the award judging panel, selected from every sector in the aviation industry and every continent, developed the categories.

Entry fee for the first time — student entries exempt

For the first time in its history, the Crystal Cabin Award is levying an entry fee of 290 euros per submission for this entry phase. This brings the award in line with most international industry awards and is a response to the massive increase in project management expenditure, for example in the premium exposure given to candidates within specialist audience and media. The voluntary industry prize, launched by the Hamburg Aviation industry cluster, will continue to be funded by sponsorship. It’s worth getting in early this year, with an early bird fee of 200 euros until 20 October.

Student submissions are expressly exempt from the entry fee and can still be made free of charge.

Existing finalists from 2020 still in the race

In addition to the two special categories, the 24 finalists in the eight regular categories, selected at the start of the year, are still in the running. The current Crystal Cabin Award round was temporarily suspended in March this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. All winners of the Crystal Cabin Awards 2020 season will be crowned in the spring of 2021 after a personal final presentation to the international experts of the judging panel. The two special categories will be awarded in parallel with the world’s leading trade fair, the Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg on 31 August 2021.

Want to submit your innovation? Please download the application information package folder in order to prepare your application.

Global Airport Smart Baggage Handling Solutions Market to 2024 with Profiles of Leading Players – ResearchAndMarkets.com

 The “Global Airport Smart Baggage Handling Solutions Market 2020-2024”  report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com’s offering.

The airport smart baggage handling solutions market is poised to grow by $ 1.15 bn during 2020-2024 progressing at a CAGR of 6% during the forecast period.

The reports on airport smart baggage handling solutions market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.

The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the development of smart airports and expansion and growth in the number of airports. In addition, development of smart airports is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well.

This study identifies increasing use of AI in SBH solutions as one of the prime reasons driving the airport smart baggage handling solutions market growth during the next few years.

The robust vendor analysis is designed to help clients improve their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading airport smart baggage handling solutions market vendors that include Babcock International Group Plc, BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG, CIMC Tianda Holdings Co. Ltd., Daifuku Co. Ltd., G&S Airport Conveyor, Leonardo Spa, Siemens AG, SITA, Vanderlande Industries BV, and WFS Global SAS.

Also, the airport smart baggage handling solutions market analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage on all forthcoming growth opportunities.

Key Topics Covered:

Executive Summary

• Market Overview

Market Landscape

• Market ecosystem
• Value chain analysis

Market Sizing

• Market definition
• Market segment analysis
• Market size 2019
• Market outlook: Forecast for 2019 – 2024

Five Forces Analysis

• Five forces summary
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Threat of new entrants
• Threat of substitutes
• Threat of rivalry
• Market condition

Market Segmentation by Product

• Market segments
• Comparison by Product
• Smart baggage and tracking devices – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• Smart baggage screening devices – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• Market opportunity by Product

Customer landscape

• Overview

Geographic Landscape

• Geographic segmentation
• Geographic comparison
• APAC – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• North America – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• Europe – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• MEA – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• South America – Market size and forecast 2019-2024
• Key leading countries
• Market opportunity by geography
• Market drivers
• Market challenges
• Market trends

Vendor Landscape

• Overview
• Landscape disruption

Vendor Analysis

• Vendors covered
• Market positioning of vendors
• Babcock International Group Plc
• BEUMER Group GmbH & Co. KG
• CIMC Tianda Holdings Co. Ltd.
• Daifuku Co. Ltd.
• G&S Airport Conveyor
• Leonardo Spa
• Siemens AG
• SITA
• Vanderlande Industries BV
• WFS Global SAS

Appendix

Click on this link for more information about this report.

A Human Interest Story

As many of you know, our industry is full of creative and innovative individuals. But sometimes their brilliance reaches beyond our industry and touches upon events that vividly live in many of our memories. One such case pertains to the now retired but long-time IFE aficionado, Ken Lew. Ken spent many years working with companies such as Sony Trans Com and Thales before retiring. Prior to joining the IFEC industry, Ken worked for United Airlines and in the mid 1980’s he was tasked with designing something very unique that many of us across the globe experienced/witnessed to some small degree. Here is an interesting story, courtesy of Ken Lew and in his own words, which we thought our readers would enjoy.

“Some of you may recall the highlight of my aviation career when my United Airline boss assigned me the task of designing the Flame Carrier that transported the Olympic Torch Flame from Mt. Olympus to NY City to start off the 1984 Olympic Torch cross country run to LA. Recently, I returned to Irivine, CA from Presscott, AZ to deal with some issues upon the death of my ex-wife, Gerrie. Just before I closed up her house to return home, I did one last look in the garage and discovered a cabinet that I had overlooked and NOT cleared it out.  There were only 3 empty boxes that had previously been used to house the garage door opener replacement; an empty box for an old printer; and one other insignificant empty box.  The FOURTH box had an odd shape to it:  square ends and long, about 2.5 feet, with a handwritten “SFO” on one side (SFO are the call letters for San Francisco Airport.)   I brushed off the years of dust and open the box . . . . . and discovered an item that had completely vanished from my memory:  it was the actual 1984 Olympic Torch that I used to test my Flame Carrier on the San Francisco Airport/United Airlines’ tarmac; in the rain; in the fog; at night. This memory was squirreled away in the recesses of my mind as was the fact that the Olympic Committee had told me to keep this as a memento of my support efforts for the 1984 Games.  It is now safely stashed in my new home in Prescott, AZ.  I’ll think about getting a display case made for THAT, and the coal-mining lamp I used to test my engineering design.”  – KEN LEW

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