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Passengers on board Tigerair Australia’s flights to Bali due to start at the end of March will enjoy streaming inflight movies and television programs delivered via the Cloudstore by Arconics software platform.
Tigerair has chosen to go its own way with the wireless delivery of content from media servers already fitted on board the aircraft to passengers’ own personal devices such as mobile phones, tablets or laptops in deciding to go with Cloudstore by Arconics, given parent company Virgin Australia utilises BoardConnect by Lufthansa Systems.
The three Boeing 737-800s Tigerair will operate to Bali from Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth will offer a mix of free and paid content such as Hollywood and Australian movies, international and local television programs, music and real-time destination mapping, Arconics said in a statement. There would be more features added over time, the company added.
Tigerair commercial director Adam Rowe said the airline wanted to provide “value and choice” for travellers.
“The CloudStore Wireless IFE solution is not only focused on the customer experience, it is also in sync with our low cost model,” Rowe said in a statement.
“We’ve deployed this software from Arconics because our passengers’ needs come first. Our customer satisfaction is at an all-time high and we look forward to bringing our customers great value in-flight entertainment for the first time.”
The first flights to Bali begin March 23.
Arconics chief executive Niall O’Sullivan said the Cloudstore platform also supported airlines’ efforts to grow ancillary revenues.
Further, airline staff could “publish their own content builds and prepare aircraft media: they no longer have to wait to import media from an integrator, and can update content on the platform without delays”.
“We’ve worked hard with some of the world’s smartest airlines to create an IFE platform that’s a generation ahead of competition,” O’Sullivan said.
“Passengers demand the freedom to use their own devices to access entertainment, communications and retail services while they’re flying and CloudStore delivers on the promise of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).
“CloudStore provides the flexibility, analytics and real-time insight that revenue managers need to drive ancillaries and our faster, simpler content loading removes effort and complexity for engineering and ground operations.”
The fleet of three ex-Virgin 737-800 have been repainted in Tigerair livery and feature Tigerair cabin crew. However, the trio will remain on Virgin Australia International Airlines air operator’s certificate and have Virgin pilots in the flightdeck.
The 180-seat all-economy cabin features three rows of extra leg room seats with 34in pitch at the front of the aircraft, while the regular economy seat has 31-inch pitch. There are also two over wing exit rows that feature 39in pitch.
