MEDIA CARRIER & EVA AIR

Just in time for the beginning of the Chinese “Year of the Tiger”, Media
Carrier is pleased to announce a new airline customer from Asia: After Singapore Airlines, the Taiwan-based airline and Star Alliance member EVA Air has adopted the company’s first-class, digital infotainment offer as well as its customer-specific add-on IT solutions. The Munich-based
digital media expert provides a customized collection of around 520 digital, predominantly Asian premium titles from its digital media library Media Box, which comprises a total of 1,600 titles. Depending on their status, EVA Air passengers can download a corresponding number of media titles free of charge from the airline’s digital library and enjoy their in-flight reading before, during and after the flight with PDFs in the customary newspaper and magazine layout. The number of downloads can be extended indefinitely by making additional purchases. On top, all EVA Air passengers can download other renowned daily newspapers free of charge.

According to a study by the German Association for Quality (DGQ, 2020), Germans see a company’s digital service offerings as a quality criterion, be it customer portals, online banking or
infotainment offers such as Media Carrier’s digital Media Box library. Today, digital services are a must for innovative companies and a key aspect for customers when choosing a provider. This also applies to companies in the travel industry, which Media Carrier primarily addresses with its Media Box. If they want to keep up with the times, they need to work with digital service offers, not least because customers increasingly expect this. For two thirds (66 percent) of Germans, digital service offers are a sign that a company is innovative overall. For 56 percent, they are even a must for companies today and a key criterion when choosing a provider.

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BOEING

• Aircraft commitments include firm order, options and lease agreements for up to 40 jets.
• Carrier launches in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, to operate all-737 MAX fleet.

Boeing and Arajet announced the new Caribbean airline has ordered 20 737 MAX airplanes, specifically the high-capacity 737-8-200 model, to deliver low operating costs and expand affordable travel options in the Americas. Arajet also has options to purchase 15 additional 737 MAX jets which, along with existing lease agreements, could take the airline’s new fuel-efficient fleet to 40 airplanes. The aircraft order was finalized in January and is currently attributed to an unidentified customer on Boeing’s Orders and Deliveries website.

“The efficient Boeing 737 MAX, together with financial and operational support from our partners at Griffin and Bain Capital, gives us the solid foundation necessary to provide flights at affordable prices to travelers in the region,” said Victor Pacheco Mendez, founder and executive officer of Arajet. “These partners believe in our vision and see the same bright future for this market and beyond. The entire team was elated to see our first aircraft arrive in Santo Domingo a few days ago, and we are eager to expand our fleet with more of these amazing jets in the months ahead.”

The airline hosted a launch event at its new hub in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Positioned between North and South America, this location in the Caribbean will leverage the range of the 737 MAX to efficiently serve a large number of traditional and under-served markets in the continental United States, Brazil, Colombia and beyond. The 737 MAX can fly further and uses 20% less fuel than prior generation aircraft. Other key benefits of Arajet’s new fleet include better environmental performance with a 40% reduction in community noise and lower emissions.

Arajet’s first jet, a 737-8 leased from Griffin Global Asset Management, was delivered in early March. The jet was toured by Dominican President Luis Abinader, who attended the launch event, along with industry, government and tourism officials. As travel and tourism recovers globally, Arajet will bring approximately 4,000 new jobs and significant new economic development to the island nation. Tourism makes up 8.4% of the Dominican Republic’s GDP.

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OTHER NEWS

• This video is really educational about the Russian aircraft leasing:
  (1262) Is Russia about to NATIONALIZE Foreign Aircraft?! | Mentour NOW! – YouTube
• Here are some newer travel hacks that we like: 11 of the Most Clever Travel Hacks, According to TikTok

Istanbul | April 16, 2019–

The world’s largest airport is open for business and DMD Turkey is the go-to provider for a wide range of print and digital media services to airlines operating there.

Our established Istanbul-based operation delivers the full DMD range of airline services at major national airports including the prestigious Istanbul Airport, where our service portfolio now reaches multiple passenger experience touchpoints:

• In premium airside lounges
• At departure gates
• Onboard
• At home pre-departure (digital)

Our unique service offered to airlines operating at Istanbul Airport includes:

• Discounted prices for local and international newspapers & magazines
• Airside access for direct delivery to aircraft, gate or lounge – as well as to any landside location
• A selection of complimentary magazine titles for gate and lounge services
• One single monthly invoice for all services and products
• Locally managed 24/7 customer service

“Our operational capacity in Turkey has increased greatly with migration to the new airport, enabling us to offer an even more timely and responsive service to clients there”, says Cihan Akkartal of DMD Turkey. “We’re proud to be there for any carriers serving Istanbul, from new friends to more than a few of our major global customers.”

The new Istanbul Airport stands at the centre of an extensive flight network as one of the most important hubs in the world. The first phase terminal hosts an annual capacity of 90 million passengers and when complete the airport will service over 300 destinations with an amazing 200 million capacity.

As a world leading travel media provider, DMD works with airlines and other travel operators globally to give them premium access to the very best printed publications and digital content.

To find out more about how DMD Turkey can help you offer your passengers a bespoke range of superb newspapers, magazines and digital titles at this fantastic new airport contact our Istanbul office today.

A variety of entertainment modules and useful digital services will be soon enjoyable by every passenger onboard Air Nostrum planes. Multiple contents will be at passenger’s fingertips, easily accessed through their own smart devices (phones, tablets and PCs).

Barcelona, Spain | February 28, 2018– Air Nostrum full fleet will soon count on Immfly’s digital services. The first CRJ aircraft equipped with Immfly’s service will take off this April. The airline based in Valencia is the first Spanish airline to install a plugged portable solution, ideal for its aircraft’s size and flight duration.

Immfly is 100% focus on providing airlines with the opportunity to digitally revolutionize the passenger in-flight experience, by designing, developing and managing the onboard digital services platform, always adapted to each airline’s needs and specifications.

Immfly identified the need for short-haul and low-budget airlines on having an economical and functional embedded onboard digital services. According to Air Nostrum aircraft’s dimensions, the portable plugged technology is a powerful solution and ideal to its airline profile. Avoids time-consuming installation ́s processes, that usually comes with fixed solutions due to the exigency of having the major Supplemental Type of Certification (STC), allows operating savings of not having to charge and swap batteries every day and involves fewer costs of installation. For all of these, Air Nostrum decided to adopt the embedded portable solution SkyCube.

With the plugged portable solution, Immfly together with Air Nostrum present “Air Nostrum Play”, the onboard digital services platform that will be available as a freemium model to its passengers. Through a set of access points installed inside the planes, passengers will be able to connect to “Air Nostrum Play” and enjoy multiple entertainment modules among other airline services.

“Air Nostrum is a highly important client for us, it will prove a new technology and with a new business model perfectly suited for regional carries. The airline performs predominantly short-flights and therefore the services will be more oriented to TV shows, series, press & news, due to the flight duration. Bringing this services to regional carriers is a before and after in the IFE industry”, explains Vincent Tomasoni, Chief Customer and Content officer at Immfly.

“We are very proud to announce this partnership with Immfly, which will allow our passengers to enjoy media contents during their flights, therefore enhancing their onboard experience. We feel especially satisfied for having developed, together with Immfly and Sirium, an innovative technological solution, hat endows our regional full fleet with the ideal technology to bring a variety of media content onboard our aircraft”, mentioned Juan Corral, the Commercial Director of Air Nostrum.

BoardConnect Media Services already in use on more than 100 commercial aircraft

Raunheim Germany and Long Beach, California | September 26, 2017 – A completely new approach to content services provisioning characterizes the BoardConnect Media Services offered by Lufthansa Systems in collaboration with Touch Inflight Solutions Inc. (Touch). Since the two companies began cooperating closely just over a year ago, their product has been successfully installed on more than 100 aircraft of commercial airlines – including Eurowings, Austrian Airlines and Azul Linhas Aereas.

Although demand for an Internet connection is rising when it comes to onboard entertainment, current bandwidth is not yet sufficient to enable all passengers to stream content simultaneously. “While we expect connectivity to increase further and prices to drop in the next three to five years, bandwidth in the air will not be comparable to normal bandwidth on the ground even then,” said Michael Childers, Chief Consultant Content and Media Services at Lufthansa Systems. “That’s why providing airlines with a content offering stored on local servers on board the aircraft and streamed via a local WiFi network is a reliable and sustainable option that can also be combined with future Internet services. Our wireless BoardConnect in-flight entertainment (IFE) solution enables us to offer our customers exactly that.”

Integrated approach
Unlike some other IFE providers, Lufthansa Systems and Touch have adopted an integrated approach to in-flight entertainment. Rather than seeing the content and system-based components as separate entities, they directly consider the technological possibilities of the IFEC system when determining which content the product should include. The infrastructure, design and selection of content maximizes the system’s performance. What’s more, new content should be available even faster than ever. By using cloud technology and eDelivery, it makes it possible to place new content on the platform extremely fast, quickly taking Lufthansa Systems and Touch from the industry’s 90 days window to a mere fraction of this period.

“When we design the infrastructure components for the content, we have to be aware of the technical capabilities of the passengers’ current smartphones and tablets. Only then can we do everything we can to offer them a passenger experience that gets the best out of their devices,” said Joe Carreira, Managing Director of Touch Inflight Solutions. “We are working closely with Lufthansa Systems in this context. Our aim is to create solutions customized to fit the individual requirements of airlines and their passengers.”

The individual content on offer ranges from global and regional films and TV series, branded and web content, music, magazines as well as airport guides and destination content. When it comes to offering Hollywood movies, Lufthansa Systems and Touch Inflight Solutions have a direct, close and long-term working relationship with the film studios.

Content services for business jets and VIP fleets
In addition to its core target group of commercial airlines, Lufthansa Systems and Touch are also aiming their product at business jets and VIP fleets, and are working closely with Group subsidiary Lufthansa Technik and their joint venture IDAIR in this area, with first successful deliveries already having been made.

BoardConnect enables passengers to use streaming technology during a flight to access an airline’s entertainment program on their own devices. The product suite includes three hardware versions: the permanently installed classic BoardConnect solution, the flexible BoardConnect Portable version and the BoardConnect Plus connectivity solution. All products work in perfect harmony with each other and can be acquired separately or in combination. BoardConnect is already running on a total of nearly 400 aircraft, and another 300 will follow in the next twelve months.

• The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, El Financiero and STAT signed as distribution partners

APEX EXPO, Singapore | October 24, 2016– Bloomberg Media Distribution has announced a partnership with a raft of premium publishers to provide business, technology, entertainment, music, lifestyle and health news to global audiences. Bloomberg Media Distribution will distribute The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard, El Financiero and STAT text and video content alongside the best of Bloomberg Media.

Josh Rucci, General Manager, Bloomberg Media Distribution says: “As the media landscape continues to evolve, so has content creation and syndication. More companies are looking to license content to add breadth and depth for their audiences. By partnering with a diverse group of publishers, Bloomberg can now offer significant capabilities to deliver a range of content easily and at scale. ”

Bloomberg’s media distribution business has greatly expanded since its inception and today provides text, photos, videos and data for broadcast, digital and print syndication to publishers, broadcasters and other companies in more than 130 countries.

With in-depth reporting, analysis, unprecedented access, world-class photography and video, and feature exclusives, The Hollywood Reporter is the entertainment industry’s flagship media brand and the definitive source for breaking entertainment and business news. Billboard is the leading global destination for charts, news, trends and innovations in music. Built on built on the most complete and well-respected database of charts across all music genres, Billboard has unmatched authority among fans, artists and the industry alike.

“The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard always strive to deliver unparalleled coverage to our readers,” said John Amato, co-president of The Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group. “By partnering with Bloomberg Media, our flagship brands for the entertainment and music industries, will be introduced to a new, highly engaged and global audience.”

Pegged by Columbia Journalism Review as the “media start-up to envy,” STAT reports from the frontiers of health and medicine, providing in-depth coverage of research, drug discovery, patient care, national politics, and the money trail in big pharma and health care. Rick Berke, STAT’s executive editor added: “STAT’s partnership with Bloomberg will help us to share our valuable reporting and head-turning multimedia with more readers who are eager for stories about health and medicine that they can’t get anywhere else.”

El Financiero offers comprehensive news coverage on finance, economics and business news from Mexico, in Spanish, whilst STAT delivers fast, deep, and tough-minded journalism, taking readers inside science labs and hospitals, biotech boardrooms, and political backrooms.

This month also sees the debut of Bloomberg’s new half-hour television and digital series ‘The David Rubenstein Show: Peer to Peer Conversations’, hosted by financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein. Rubenstein interviews some of the world’s most influential power players about their person and professional journeys, including Bill Gates, Lloyd Blankfein and Warren Buffett.

United Kingdom | June 15, 2016– Dawson Media Direct is delighted to welcome aboard its new Managing Director, Paul Rayson. Mr Rayson will succeed the company’s outgoing MD John Howe, who retires next month.

Rayson joins DMD from a fixed term contact position on the Executive Leadership Team of Flightglobal, the authoritative source of news, insight and expertise for the global aviation community. In that role he worked internationally with airlines, airports and government bodies, having previously held leadership positions across the aviation, aerospace, publishing, consultancy and logistics sectors. He brings a wealth of highly relevant experience to the job and the specialist knowledge needed to lead DMD in its ambitions for the coming years.

“DMD has challenging but entirely achievable development plans”, said Rayson today, “with the fuller integration of its global print and digital services into one seamless multimedia solution. I’m confident my experience with both formats and the main market sectors we serve can help guide completion of that dovetailing process, and I’m happy to inherit from John a strong management team with unrivalled expertise in airline media of every kind.”

Paul Rayson went on to pay tribute to his predecessor, who has run the company for the past 17 years: “Over that time John has successfully positioned DMD for the digital age whilst keeping a strong focus on its core business in physical newspaper and magazine provision; and he has grown us from a UK operation to a truly global one, with service centres from Hong Kong to New York to Istanbul, and beyond. John Howe has been a longstanding leader for DMD, and an outstanding one, and he richly deserves a happy retirement.”

Mr Howe added: “I am leaving DMD in good hands and in good shape – ready to face the challenges ahead in our ever-evolving industry. I joined a company serving airlines in the UK only, and airlines remain the lifeblood of our business, but as we globalised we built new relationships too, with rail operators, airports and airside lounge operators all around the world. That has opened up really exciting opportunities for Paul and the team to develop, and I wish them very great success with it.”

United Kingdom | June 15, 2016– Dawson Media Direct is delighted to welcome aboard its new Managing Director, Paul Rayson. Mr Rayson will succeed the company’s outgoing MD John Howe, who retires next month.

Rayson joins DMD from a fixed term contact position on the Executive Leadership Team of Flightglobal, the authoritative source of news, insight and expertise for the global aviation community. In that role he worked internationally with airlines, airports and government bodies, having previously held leadership positions across the aviation, aerospace, publishing, consultancy and logistics sectors. He brings a wealth of highly relevant experience to the job and the specialist knowledge needed to lead DMD in its ambitions for the coming years.

“DMD has challenging but entirely achievable development plans”, said Rayson today, “with the fuller integration of its global print and digital services into one seamless multimedia solution. I’m confident my experience with both formats and the main market sectors we serve can help guide completion of that dovetailing process, and I’m happy to inherit from John a strong management team with unrivalled expertise in airline media of every kind.”

Paul Rayson went on to pay tribute to his predecessor, who has run the company for the past 17 years: “Over that time John has successfully positioned DMD for the digital age whilst keeping a strong focus on its core business in physical newspaper and magazine provision; and he has grown us from a UK operation to a truly global one, with service centres from Hong Kong to New York to Istanbul, and beyond. John Howe has been a longstanding leader for DMD, and an outstanding one, and he richly deserves a happy retirement.”

Mr Howe added: “I am leaving DMD in good hands and in good shape – ready to face the challenges ahead in our ever-evolving industry. I joined a company serving airlines in the UK only, and airlines remain the lifeblood of our business, but as we globalised we built new relationships too, with rail operators, airports and airside lounge operators all around the world. That has opened up really exciting opportunities for Paul and the team to develop, and I wish them very great success with it.”

March 24, 2009 (Brea, CA)—Gabon Airlines, based in Libreville, Gabon, will launch portable media players from The IMS Company in the second quarter of 2009 on routes from Libreville to France, the Congo, and South Africa in Business and Economy classes in an agreement made by IMS with Paris-based Groupe Nesse on behalf of Gabon Airlines, according to Harry Gray, IMS’ vice president sales and marketing.

The PAV-705 seven-inch touchscreen players will be utilized on B767 aircraft and will provide seven feature-length movies and video programming totaling 18 and a half hours, as well as audio content and games. The privately-owned airline began in November 2006.The IMS Company is providing the portable media players and accessories, the ground-based infrastructure, and turnkey content management services.

The IMS Company, the leading provider of portable entertainment solutions in the inflight entertainment industry, will be exhibiting their products in Hall B6, space #6B10 at the Aircraft Interiors Expo, March 31 to April 2 in Hamburg, Germany.

About The IMS Company:

Founded in 1996, The IMS Company is an entertainment and communications solutions provider in the travel industry and a systems and software solutions provider to the aerospace industry and the military. IMS serves more than twenty commercial airlines with portable entertainment, wireless communications, and content management services, as well as the provision of advanced systems and software engineering support in the development and deployment of the latest in inflight entertainment, cabin avionics, and media distribution systems. IMS also provides engineering services and software development services to unmanned vehicles and software-defined radios. IMS has expanded into the provisioning of content services and hardware solutions for business aviation, rental car, rail passenger, and related markets reaching the traveling public. In 2008, IMS was named the 14th fastest-growing privately-held company in technology-heavy Orange County, California by the Orange County Business Journal, up from the 24th fastest-growing in the 2007 survey.

For more information see: www.imsco-us.com.

March 23, 2009 (Brea, CA)—Kuwait Airways, the national airline of Kuwait, will begin using 7-inch touchscreen PAV705 portable media players from The IMS Company on May 1 on European and United States routes in First and Business Class cabins, according to IMS president, Rod Farley.

The players will be used on two B777, four A340, and five A300 aircraft. Over the three-year agreement, The IMS Company will provide several hundred media players and accessories, ground support equipment and recurring content management services.

“Kuwait Airways has selected the IMS PAV705 Portable Media Player as part of enhancing our First and Business Class Inflight Entertainment Service,” said Waleed Al Hooty, Assistant Director Onboard Services, Ground Handling Department, for Kuwait Airways Corporation. “IMS has been the only company to have a complete range of portable media players along with an extensive clientele. In this short period of time, IMS has proved their genuine commitment to providing excellent services to Kuwait Airways.”

Each portable device has a 160GB storage capacity and will contain over 284 hours of video content—including 72 movies—along with a large offering of audio content and games. A generous variety of Hollywood movies, Arabic movies, and Arabic and Hindi classic movies, along with news and current affairs, comedies, documentaries and sports programs, and Kuwaiti television are included as a part of the entertainment package provided to Kuwait Airways’ premium class passengers.

The PAV705 is the lightest weight, most compact and best value portable media player on the market today, according to Harry Gray, IMS vice president sales and marketing. These attributes along with its stylish ergonomic design and ease of use make it the most popular device in the airline market.

The leading provider of portable entertainment solution in inflight entertainment, The IMS Company will be exhibiting its products in Hall B6, space #6B10, at the Aircraft Interiors Expo on March 31 to April 2, 2009, in Hamburg, Germany.

About The IMS Company:

Founded in 1996, The IMS Company is an entertainment and communications solutions provider in the travel industry and a systems and software solutions provider to the aerospace industry and the military. IMS serves more than twenty commercial airlines with portable entertainment, wireless communications, and content management services, as well as the provision of advanced systems and software engineering support in the development and deployment of the latest in inflight entertainment, cabin avionics, and media distribution systems. IMS also provides engineering services and software development services to unmanned vehicles and software-defined radios. IMS has expanded into the provisioning of content services and hardware solutions for business aviation, rental car, rail passenger, and related markets reaching the traveling public. In 2008, IMS was named the 14th fastest-growing privately-held company in technology-heavy Orange County, California by the Orange County Business Journal, up from the 24th fastest-growing in the 2007 survey.

For more information see: www.imsco-us.com.