Latest / The Future Travel Experience (FTE) Podcast / United Airlines’ Dominic Green on personalised IFE and the future of the connected passenger experience

Transcript

United Airlines’ Dominic Green on personalised IFE and the future of the connected passenger experience · The Future Travel Experience (FTE) Podcast

• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ever felt like the world is moving too fast, that there's simply not enough time between clearing your inbox and joining the next team's call to give deep and meaningful thought to the technologies that are about to transform your aviation operation?
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, help is at hand with this new future travel experience podcast.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: Proud to be part of the Apex family.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: My name is Max Cosny.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Tune in for a collaborative and friendly forum where we'll guide you on the innovations that are too important to ignore.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Each episode I'll be interviewing aviation chiefs who've blazed a trail with new technology.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: You can listen on your way to work while travelling to an Apex FTE event or even while walking your dog.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_01: Whatever your preference, you'll uncover a wealth of collaboration, best practice, and creative thinking.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to today's episode, ladies and gentlemen, where I catch up with Dominic Green, Director of Product Management at Onboard Customer Experiences at United Airlines and serving president of Apex.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Dom reveals how United is transforming in-flight entertainment from a generic and passive medium into a proactive and highly personalized content journey that is moulded to the unique tastes of each and every passenger, regardless of whether you turn left or right.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Dom explains why he's proud of Peacock, a new dedicated in-flight entertainment channel, the crucial role that Apex plays in fostering industry-wide collaboration, and why the in-flight map still reigns supreme in the onboard viewing charts.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: Enjoy the show.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Pod Dom, joining us all the way from Chicago.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Great to have you on the show.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Max.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: What do you mean by that?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so we um started out many years ago.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um decision was made to put seatback screens across the whole fleet.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then more recently, um investing in super fast connectivity with our relationship with Starlink.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, those are kind of two key technological pillars, I guess.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um but the intention behind all of that was to leverage the technology to just as you said, evolve away from it being just a kind of media player, which is traditionally how most people look at IFE.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um and uh not dismissing that because that's still a critical part of what we offer our customers, is a great entertainment experience.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But kind of with the knowledge that we're, you know, with the screens, we have a one-to-one kind of channel with every single customer when they're on board our planes.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: And with connectivity, we have a way of delivering and gathering real-time kind of information and messaging with our customers.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we kind of evolved into this strategy of creating this fully integrated marketing and engagement platform.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what that means is we can communicate with our customers on a one-to-one basis, um, whether that's kind of loyalty, recognition type stuff, um, personalized offers and promotions that are relevant and beneficial to that customer as well as as well as good for us from a business perspective.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and very importantly, what we one of the first pillars beyond entertainment that we started to deploy was um all of the great features and information that you get through our app, um, like assisting you with your travel experience, we're able to deploy that through the screens as well.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of um consistent and um complementary to what you get through our other channels um throughout your journey experience.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: So from what from what you describe, it sort of has leapt from being much more of a passive 2D service to very much interactive and engaging in in the format that you provide.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we give the give our customers the ability to interact with us as well, whether it's through the CBAT screens or if it's um, for example, an IROT situation where we're letting a customer know through the they don't always have their personal device out and uh or even the app enabled, but we can let them know through a subtle notification that they you know their flight's being rebooked, they can relax, even though they might be worried that their current flight is delayed.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, or you know, even information about their connecting flights and baggage and all that kind of cool stuff that you get through the app, we can deliver consistent information in the seatback and then point them to the tools and the capabilities that allow them to manage that themselves.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so often it's us pointing them over to the app or the website to do that kind of stuff.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and uh stats time, so you can correct and update me on some of these.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: I just pulled off that you guys have around 130,000 seatback screens on sort of around 700 aircraft today.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: And the goal is to um grow that to about 300,000 by 2028 on a on sort of around about 1200 aircraft by that point.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a couple well, a couple of updates.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and and I'm always getting corrected by my team because every number I quote is constantly out of date.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because we're we're rolling out seatback and and Starlink at a really fast rate.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: We actually have around 910 aircraft with um seatback IFE already deployed.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, that's out of a total of just over 1,100 mainline aircraft.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and um that's about 170,000 screens today.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: So big jump up from the 130k that you mentioned.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: The goal is still around 300k on 1200 aircraft, but uh my bosses keep ordering new aircraft, so our kind of goal is constantly going up.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And then Starlink's coming in really fast behind.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: We're intending to have, I think we have close to 200 mainline aircraft already equipped with Starlink.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's on top of the 337 regional jets that got it first.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And the goal is to have close to a thousand total aircraft with Starlink by the end of the year.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that that's um that's a lot of aircraft, there's a lot of screens, and that's some very clever kit that um needs a big investment cost.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'd just be fascinated to know how um you intend to link that commitment to the IFE back to your growth strategy and um you know see that drive expansion and new business and loyalty amongst the um the passengers at Use United.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, a lot of people ask about are we are we deploying the screens just about like monetization?
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And we do directly monetize where it's appropriate through the seatback screens, but that's almost a kind of secondary consideration.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: The the real reason for putting both the screens and the and great connectivity in place is just delivering a fantastic experience for our customers.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that's all part of our overall strategy about creating an elevated, more premium experience and driving premium brand loyal customers.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's worth a lot to us, getting customers excited about um us as an airline because of the great product that we deliver and coming back again and again.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's really the core of it.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And it that's tangible in terms of that that brings passengers back for you guys.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we we we're very data driven.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: We look in great detail at what every single component of the onboard experience um does for our customers.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: But in most cases, it's a kind of holistic view.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I can't say, hey, because we put Apple TV on last year, that necessarily drives a repeat customer, but we know that along with you know, new seats, better quality screens, Bluetooth connectivity, high speed, internet, all of those things together create this great customer experience that is driving our customer satisfaction scores up, and uh, you know, our kind of overall commercial success is is you know attributed to um that great product and the customers loving it and coming back again and again.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so a happy customer um satisfied is is a loyal customer and the repeat customer, right?
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I have a pretty me and my team have pretty simple KPIs, which is uh happy eyeballs, um getting customers enthusiastic and hooked into what we're offering them on the screens, whether that's great content or you know, um information and services that make their experience, the travel experience with us like seamless, and then getting them to come back again and again and enjoy more of that.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: And do you do you follow that with sort of direct customer research um focus groups?
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, what what are some of the um the gems that come out of those uh those sort of uh investigations and discussions?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we we gather a huge amount of data off the platforms themselves.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: So we use that to kind of track how we're performing.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're more and more using that to drive actual decision making, you know, whether it's drilling down into the types of content we book or um how we serve up some of this information, even the advertising, making sure that we have the right balance there to deliver this great experience.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: But we also, I actually sit alongside our research and insights team.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: So we do a lot of work with them on commissioning um direct research with our customers.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: We also do specific focus groups on a regular basis across all different all aspects of the onboard product, um including IFE and connectivity, just to understand what it is that our customers are happy with, um not happy with in some cases, and also what they're looking for.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's really important as well, not just measuring what we're doing today, but what what are the gaps that we can keep investing in to bring that in.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we and we see great results.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Our um, I think our satisfaction scores on IFE are up close to 20%, our customer satisfaction scores, based on our previous platform.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, our engagement is in the well into the 80%.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the number of people that are actually engaging with the CPAT screens in some form.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um our content engagement is is is in the 70% as well, which is pretty amazing, um, even allowing for the fact that we have customers that you know want to sleep and work and uh you know use Starlink for things other than watching movies.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: So um we're kind of constantly measuring like what our customers think about us, what they expect from us, and how we're performing, and the results are really, really strong.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, did you find any trends there about what generates those happy eyeballs that kind of brings people's um you know brings them happiness and engagement whilst they're flying?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: It it's it's I think it's a combination of two things, and and it starts to actually get into a bit of the uh how how we use data, this conversation around science versus art.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, some of it is offering customers um similar experiences to what they get at home.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: So the same content, the same movies, the same TV, the same services that they would experience at home.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that's something customers tell us about.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: That's why we're kind of dipping into um how we enable streaming type services in the in-flight screens.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's also, and we can use a lot of data and research to help us decide what those features and content are.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but on the, I would say more on the creative, on the art side, it's also working really closely with our content providers and our content service provider to find these kind of hidden gems that people don't necessarily know they want and don't have at home, but create this kind of unique, uniquely united and differentiated experience on board.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's this kind of balance that we're all striving to deliver, like the you know, kind of comfort content and comfort kind of information and features and capabilities, but also these kind of hidden gems that get our customers really excited.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: I was fascinated to hear that the map still reigns supreme as uh something that people look at a lot during dwell time and throughout the onboard experience.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us a bit more about that, because it's on the days of all the things you can now access on board that uh the we still like to look at a map of us going across the world.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It sounds uh Yeah, I I mean I think it's yeah, I think it's um I mean essentially it's a reassurance thing.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: People want to know how long to get there, where am I flying over.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've got a lot of very vocal av geeks, especially amongst our kind of um premium frequent flyer population.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: So they really want to see all of that data about you know altitude and the cockpit view and all of that really cool stuff.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but because it's such an important channel um or kind of feature that that that is there, I I don't know if it's always number one because you know, per minute or hour of viewing time, maybe some movies and TV shows are actually up there as well.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_00: But it's definitely a really key part of the overall experience.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something we we we're constantly striving to elevate in itself.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um so actually trying to turn the map into a key part of the engagement and entertainment experience, as well as just being a place for information about your journey.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_01: How do you do you think you could look to develop that uh that focus and attention?
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: Is there an opportunity there for um generating ancillary um revenue and advertising?
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_01: Is that something you've looked at around that um Um Yeah, we're we're already doing it.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, almost three years ago when we deployed our new software platform, we started doing targeting um promotion um and um offer campaigns to different customer groups based on information we know about every customer at every seat.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we began rolling some of those elements out into the map as well.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that that includes advertising, it's also promotions about united products and services like our Mileage Plus loyalty scheme or our uh Co-Bank card partners.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we're our intent is to be able to offer those um seamlessly across any you know touch point that the customers have with us, and not just on board, but also um in tandem with um where we're offering those campaigns on our other channels like.com and the app.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you'll see a camp, you'll see a it could be a promotion when you're looking to book your flight on the website.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you might see something that builds on that while you're you know checking in and getting your boarding pass on the app, and then you might see a continuation of that um kind of messaging when you're on board the plane, whether it's uh pre-roll video before a movie, uh tile within the UI, or a kind of banner across the map.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we are also looking at how we monetize directly in the map as well, um, you know, um in relevant and useful ways.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: We don't want to do anything that's disruptive to the customer, but if we can provide them with uh options to book you know tours and services for the destination that they're flying to or might be flying to next month, then then that's um good for us and it's great for our customers as well.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, indeed.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: Interesting, interesting area of development.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: I also understand in terms of innovations that um you launched a new channel, Peacock, in May this year.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a bit more about that, Dom, and your your ambitions?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we um so we're we're constantly um talking to all of the main content providers and how we kind of bring those into our ecosystem.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um we launched Apple TV actually a year ago this month.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Peacock was a kind of newer partner that we launched in May.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Spotify actually in June last year.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you've got kind of got these big premium brands that um really add value to the overall offering that we're providing our customers.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um the approach we're taking with each of them is um get them on board in a kind of branded um environment initially.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's VOD cash content that's stored on the In-Flight Entertainment System.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of our kind of I think our differentiators, unlike some of our kind of peers in the industry, is we insist on full seasons of shows.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Our customers have told us they get frustrated when they're only offered you know the first two or three episodes of an older show.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so they nothing wrong with that if to get customers hooked into that and familiar with that brand, especially if they're not uh you know using that service at home.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of our customers want to be able to binge watch and watch the full season.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that's part of our approach.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then as you may have heard about with Spotify, we then build from the kind of cached experience what we're doing with Spotify, and it's rolling out next month, is the full streaming experience.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: So you'll actually be able to launch the Spotify app on the seatback screen and log in as a subscriber and access your full kind of personal playlists and libraries of content.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: Those are all being streamed directly from the ground over Starlink.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and our kind of goal is to create similar experiences with other um big premium entertainment providers as well.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_01: So you have do you have defined metrics of success for that launch of what you want to see the channel achieve in the first year, first three years?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, we track we track usage immediately.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um so we get data off the aircraft regularly.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can we track every button click, every minute of time spent within any part of the experience, whether it's the map, a movie, um, dwell time, completes, all that kind of stuff.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: So um, I'm not saying we're as sophisticated as big entertainment media platforms on the ground, but our goal is to get close to that and really monitor what customers are doing.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Again, it's back to those happy eyeballs or ears in the case of music, and just you know, we'll modify our offering based on um how our customers are behaving and reacting to what we offer them and what and what they're telling us as well, um, outside of the data through surveys and focus groups.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we kind of mesh all of that feedback together and go, what is it we need to keep improving on and do next?
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: That's interesting.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I you mentioned at the top of the discussion around the rollout of Starlink.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_01: Can you tell us a bit more about how that is um how that is going?
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: And also if you you know you regularly engage with your customers and passengers, what's the feedback been on the um the service, the Wi-Fi speeds, and the access on the aircraft that have had um Starlink fitted?
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's going really well.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: I I think as I said earlier on, we have um we have around 500 aircraft flying with Starlink today.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the the regional jets got done first, our two-cabin regional jets, because they had an older generation of connectivity that just didn't perform as well.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, and they also don't have seatback screens.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of really important to get them the best connectivity.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Since um late last year, we started putting Starlink on our um some of our mainline aircraft as well.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: And the the goal is to have all mainline aircraft deployed um probably by late next year, early 28.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we as I said earlier, we have about 200 of those done already, and we'll have 500 plus of those done by the end of this year.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the feedback from customers has been fantastic.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've actually been on a couple number of flights myself as a customer, but also a couple of media flights, and we we've had people with multiple devices, you know, downloading videos, uh streaming in real time, watching live sports, gaming.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we've had um journalists doing interviews in real time, video interviews and uploading their kind of um you know podcasts and and and videos um back to their kind of um enterprise systems in in real time and and no no friction, no, no problems with that service at all.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So and that's those flights are where we're really pushing the limits.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like you know, 150 people with three devices all doing video streaming downloading stuff is is probably not the usual behavior.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: But and then but then we see that that's all the fun stuff, and then beyond that we see um both in the usage and the um kind of customer satisfaction scores a massive improvement.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think our customer satisfaction scores are double what we had before with any of even the best um legacy connectivity platform.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: So it's going really well.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other key part of it is whilst it's um fantastic for customers to be able to do their own services, whether that's a you know uh listening in on a team's call, we try and tell customers not to talk.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: So we've had to do a whole kind of code of conduct about what they what they should be doing.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: But customers can pretty much do anything that's connected, that's fantastic.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: But we also um were one of the first airlines to fully integrate the styling connectivity with the seatback IFE.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's also allowing us to power a lot of connected services in the seatback.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it gives customers the choice of what they want to do on what device.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so if they want to stream on their personal device, they can, but if they want to view some of the kind of connected content, live TV we started doing last month, um, then they can do that as well.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um many cases they want to watch content on the best screen available, which is the seatback screen, and they'll be doing complimentary stuff on their personal device or or a lot of productivity work type you know functions on the personal devices.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: How how important do they re report back at those meetings it is for them to have reliable fast Wi-Fi whilst they travel?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um it's it's really important.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: The only negative we've had is, and but it's in a kind of cheeky way, is people going.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: There were at times it was great to be on a plane and not have connectivity because you could kind of escape.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I I feel that one personally.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um because I kind of yeah, I we kind of almost have to go, no, I I didn't manage to get on a Starlink aircraft, so I wasn't able to do my email or join that call.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: But um yeah, that that that's kind of a pretty negative.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a good problem to have.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the feedback has been great.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: We've we've we've we've got some really fun um stories that custom custom there was one customer that did some, they're kind of an entrepreneur in some kind of digital space, actually did some coding in real time and uploaded it while they're on the aircraft.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: So they completed a critical project.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think we had someone say they they close their uh like mortgage deal while they're on the plane.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so so a lot of kind of fun stories that come out of it as well about people doing um, you know, some quite interesting things that they don't think they would have been able to do without Starlink.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you might get your first marriage proposal on the on the well, surely no one would do that on Teams.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not very personal.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we I'm not sure a marriage marriage proposal on Teams is that exciting.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: It must be a challenge though, because the technology, and we've had um Don Buckman and we know um via sat on the pod, but guaranteeing that connectivity uh with something moving around the earth at 500 plus miles an hour with a satellite going around but even faster.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: For you as um, you know, you know, to give your customers that assurance that it won't drop out and you're not gonna lose it, that's gonna be a huge challenge for you.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: The team there at United.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's actually been working really well.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: We've we have had occasional um dropouts, not us personally, but um or United, but you know, the the Starlink network will occasionally have glitches, but people are accepting of that because I think they understand the space they're in, you know, they're in a metal tube at 35,000 feet, like zooming around at 300 miles an hour.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: So um people just last week we had crazy back on Tuesday, we had crazy storms here in Chicago with tornado warnings and and that stuff.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of the Wi-Fi and cell services were down or kind of um in and out.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think people get it that there's occasional glitches, no one's expecting 100%.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but the performance we had with Starlink has been fantastic.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, so um the the kind of expectation is being delivered on in terms of the performance and the the ability for people to do what it is they want to do with the connectivity.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: What's your intention with Starlink in terms of equipping the fleet?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_01: Will that be something that just goes on new aircraft, or is it very much the goal that all United aircraft have that capability?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, uh we and we publicly stated that the plan is to have the full um mainline and as I say, all the regional jets that are two cabin which have connectivity before they've already been done.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the focus initially uh when we started the first launch uh equipped was back in April uh 25.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the regional jets, and then as each aircraft type gets equipped and certified, we roll out really quickly on that on that type.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um uh so most of the aircraft over the first um year and a half have all been retrofits.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um so, but as new aircraft come in, Starlink will be the spec on those new aircraft as well.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll kind of gradually see all of the new and then all of the existing aircraft get um installed and equipped.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think as I said earlier on, I think by early 28, we're expecting to have the majority of the fleet.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking over 95% of the fleet with both IFE and um Starlink and on the regional jets, Starlink.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_01: And interestingly, and I'd I'd love for you to talk a bit more about this, Dom, the philosophy that that should be for everyone, uh, right?
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: So not just those who turn left, but you know, that those at the back get the same.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: Why is that so important to you?
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, I think our um our our kind of our overall strategy is to, as I said earlier on, is to create this premium experience that's for everyone.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Uh just because you're turning right and sitting further down the back of the plane doesn't mean you should have a um a lesser experience.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you're not going to get a flatbed seat and premium amenities like you would in the in the kind of pointy end of the plane.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: But um everything that we're doing today is about providing a better experience for everyone, no matter what your seat in.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So everyone is getting C back IFE, everyone has access to starting.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And it's free if you are a Martish Plus member or register as one, which you can do in real time on the plane.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and and then it's a one-click step anytime you get on a plane after that to connect to the wireless, the Wi-Fi service.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we're putting bigger overhead bins on on almost every single aircraft so that every customer should be able to get their you know carry-on bag on board, not just those in the premium cabins.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Um on the newer aircraft, we're putting newer IFE, so every customer in every seat gets a bigger screen than they had before.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone gets multiple charging options as well.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: So um these upgrades that we're deploying, whilst they might be different from cabin to cabin and seat to cabin, um, they're upgrades for every single customer on every part of the plane.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Make a date with us in Singapore on the 18th and 19th of November for the debut of the all-new Apex FTE Expo.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: Move over Iron Man and Make Way Wonder Woman.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: This is a new super show that takes the Airline Passenger Experience Association's flagship Apex Global Expo to Asia and combines it with Future Travel Experience's long-established Regional Asian Innovation Platform.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: The powerful collaboration creates the industry's most comprehensive platform for passenger experience and innovation, connecting airline, airport, and technology leaders from across APEC and beyond to showcase the ideas and solutions that are redefining the future of travel.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Our show theme this November is aviation's new golden era higher revenue, greater returns, and AI R OI.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: You won't want to miss it.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_01: Find out how you can join us now at www.future travel experience.com forward slash FTE Asia or email me at max at future travel experience.com.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see you there.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_01: Why do you think seatback uh will remain the preferred passenger choice in the future versus um you know people bringing on their own devices?
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: And particularly I'm thinking my kids who are teenagers and um they're used to kind of you know packing their phones or iPads, whatever it is, and bringing them on board.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_01: So what give me the case for why you think seatback remains the dominant um technology feature on the on the flight?
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a good question.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's obviously been a topic um for a lot of people for years, and actually United was in the camp of putting, you know, enabling personal devices, and that was thought to be like the primary um approach, certainly on narrow body, mainly domestic aircraft, until about six, seven years ago when we changed our position.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think the reason we think seedback is really important is a couple of things.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: We want to provide customers with an experience similar to what they get at home and and on the ground in general.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when you go home, you generally don't watch movies and TV on your mobile phone sat in a corner.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there are a few kind of exceptions to that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: I guess the teenager that just wants to curl up in a corner and watch TikTok videos, fine.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um but we enable that with do that on Starlink if that's what you want to do.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: But you can go home and watch movies, TV shows, all the premium content on the biggest screen available, which is the TV in your living room or your bedroom, or the bigger screens that we're putting on the seatback on the plane.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we're not trying to constrain customers for doing things on their personal device, but we also want to give customers the best option available for the content or the feature or whatever a product experience it is they're choosing to do at that time.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, also seatback screens are also a critical part of us creating that kind of one-to-one um marketing engagement opportunity with our customers.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um and there's a lot we can do with them on personal devices.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: Our app is a fantastic, award-winning customers love it, but there's a lot of things that work really well on a kind of bigger seatback screen as well.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're seeing that in our kind of customer satisfaction and engagement numbers.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Engagement just keeps going up.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: So even with Starlink, interestingly, we're we're doing a bit more research into this to get kind of full data, but we're actually seeing engagement with the seatbacks go up where we have Starlink.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so it's not become a threat or a competitor.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: They're actually complementary.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think it's because people are, you know, as we've talked a lot about second screening or even third screening capabilities, but I think that's what we're actually seeing, and we're enabling that behavior.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: So customers could watch the like sporting event on the seatback screen because you want the best quality available, but you might be looking up player profiles and shopping for merchandise on your kind of mobile device while you've got your laptop open and you're doing a Teams call.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it just gives another option as a way to you know access content that that's important.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's really interesting.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_01: And tell um I understand, as you've mentioned several times um during our conversation this afternoon, that that personalization keeps coming up.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: That's really key, delivering that kind of personalization through the seatback and mobile devices.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: But how do you do that with such um how do you target it?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: I guess is my question.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_01: You've got 300 plus passengers, very different backgrounds, walks of life.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_01: Some might be loyal and flying with you every every week, every month, but others might be brand new.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: So, how do you go about that as the operator to kind of targeting the right messages to the right people?
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there's a couple of different few different kinds of um pieces to that.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: One is um I think personalization is great when you get it right.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's really easy to get it wrong.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you you can just go on any streaming platform today and it'll say, Hey, have I got recommendations for you, Dominic?
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, what do you think?
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like three of those top ten things are actually relevant.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then you kind of, you know, as an analyst type person, you look into it and go, Oh, okay, they recommended that to me because it's got the same actor as a show I watched like two weeks ago.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not why I watched that show.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: So personalization in general, um, I think we're we're doing and we're really interested in it because we think it when you get it right, it can create a great differentiated experience for every customer.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_00: But you got to be really careful and make sure you get it right because it can be disruptive and annoying if you get it wrong.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but and is that is that down to down to how good your algorithm is or you know what what differentiates getting it right from wrong?
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's kind of the data that you have on that customer, but also understanding that what you know about that customer is gonna change from uh depending on the circumstances.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like I might, you know, might have a frequent flyer that's a regular business traveler, um, and maybe that's how I'm thinking about them in traditional airline context, but their mindset might be completely different when they're coming back from a visit to their family or you know, a personal event that's happened in their life, or if they're traveling with their kind of kids and their spouse on vacation.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got to kind of understand that what's personal isn't the same every time.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's different depending on the kind of context and the um expectations of that person.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: The the way we're doing it is we have an incredible amount of data on our customers.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um we know a lot about their behaviors through how they interact with us in in different ways, um, not just on the plane.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we load um the passenger manifest data to our aircraft on all of our connected flights that gets loaded as the gate closes.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's already allowing us to do a lot of targeting to those customers today.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, we've been doing that for almost three years.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it started with advertising and with united kind of offers and promotions, where, for example, if I already know you have one of our um Chase partner credit cards, I don't try and offer you a chase, a generic Chase card.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, what I could do is offer you an upgrade or inform you about the benefits of having that card so I can kind of drive usage.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: So what we've been doing is trying to what data do we have on that customer?
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: What do we have permission to use?
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's really important as well.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then how can I serve up um not just offers and ads, but even content that's relevant to you at that point in time.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um is it harder to do that for someone who's a new passenger than it is for someone who's repeat?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because you just don't know as much about them and they're taking it.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but we can start by doing um, we can look at kind of audience personas and segments and start doing some kind of I know profiling is maybe not a great word because it means other things, but like start doing some kind of very general, uh high-level um kind of curation of that experience.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then as we learn more about that customer, then we can kind of go deeper as as they get, especially as they give us permission to do that.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: We actually have a sign-on um screen on our IFE screen, uh on our IFE platform today, and that's part of us asking customers to give us permission to you know personalize their their experience.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if they don't want to, that's great, but it means you can't necessarily get some features like continue watching the movie that you're watching on the last flight, or you know, I know you really love to go straight into the moving map and actually this screen on the moving map, so why not just take you straight there rather than you having to go and find it?
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Or you you know you're absorbed in all our and been what binge watching all of our Apple or Apple TV or Peacock content, so why not take them straight back into that section every time if I know that's what you want to do, until you tell me otherwise.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: So those are all those the kind of things that we're doing, which uh some of those aren't necessarily deep personalization, they're just kind of guiding people into the parts of the experience that make sense for them.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, but I can see the impact as a passenger if you get on board and it already the system knows what you like and takes you to it, it's it makes it a more seamless, uh, enjoyable experience, I guess.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: It has a benefit for you.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And a big part of what we're doing is like how do we help promote and guide customers into that stuff as well?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's all it's all very well having the data and then mapping that to what we know about our customers and even understanding their behavior at that moment in time and and kind of creating a great experience for them.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: But some customers still need a helping hand to get to what it is they're really looking for.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um and and allowing them to feedback to us as well if we got it right.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: That's an important part of it.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we're kind of continuously having this engagement and feedback loop that we kind of keep learning from.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um speaking to several people on the on the pod in the industry, there seems to be a rise in interactive games coming through in IFE.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Can you comment on that and whether you also share that thought that it's going to be uh um in vogue?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we we actually just relaunched um our kind of games on board.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's still, I would kind of call them legacy IFE games, just because the ability to do a lot of stuff on the IFE platform is is is constrained.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: We have a wide range of kind of um generations of technology, um, but even the newer platforms, there's only so much you can do.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: The handsets aren't the same as you would get at home.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: The you know, a lot of us, a lot of our navigation is touch screen based with handsets as kind of support, especially if you're in the front cabins and the screens are further away, but it's not really set up for uh you know um the latest types of gaming experiences that you might experience at home.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um we are seeing though that with Starlink, people are and and the low latency issue kind of going away with like Leo constellations that um we're seeing the ability to game using your own devices is actually becoming kind of a bit more popular on board.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um so that's something we're trying to tap into.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are there opportunities to allow we're not gonna try and do kind of full scale console type gaming on the CPAT screens because it's probably not viable, but why not have content that's um complementary to what you might be doing on your own gaming um console when you're when you're on board the plane?
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's Starlink enables you to play games in real time and have real interacting, interactive kind of connected gaming experiences.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: But um, a lot of those gamers and the gaming partners that we taught to say there's a lot of complementary shoulder content that those gamers are really get really absorbed into as well.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, eventually your fingers are gonna get tired of fiddling with that console and the and the kind of different switches and so on, but why not kind of people really like you can watch kind of some eSports broadcast in real time or kind of engage with some Twitch content, that kind of thing.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, so with gamers, a lot of it's all about the overall experience, not just the game itself, that whether it's on the seatback or the personal device.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, interesting.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: How did you first um get involved in the aviation industry and and come through to the IFE space?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um I guess I'll try and keep it short.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I actually grew up in southern Africa in Zambia, uh, went out there when I was really young, um, lived there through most of my childhood.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think because we would fly back um fairly regularly to visit friends and family, um, I kind of got hooked on the flying experience like really early on.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: I even had my shows how old I am, I had my BOAC, like junior, junior jet flyers or whatever it was called, kind of passport that you'd get stamped by the by the pilot.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um so I think I kind of had the aviation bug and the travel bug in me from a really early start.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it just happened I was in my first job, I had a friend who worked for British Airways, then option they were kind of recruiting in their IT department.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's how I ended up with a position at a BA.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the second week on my job, I was actually working on a kind of lounge automation kind of project at the time um for BA's executive club lounges.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: And uh this this guy comes in the room who was working on this kind of IFE project that no one knew much about and said, Hey, we really need some help.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: We're we're trying to define the our requirements for this new um interactive VOD, you know, all this stuff that's quite common today.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, 20 plus years ago, that was kind of all unheard of, and you know, a few airlines were starting to um dabble with that technology, and and then that's how I ended up in IFE.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, aviation interest to start with ended up at British Airways, and then by kind of almost by accident, I ended up in IFE.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been trying to get out of it ever since and never have escaped.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: But what do you enjoy most about being in the IFE space?
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: What gives you the biggest kick about the uh the impact you have?
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've had a number of different roles.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was on the content service as well as the airline side originally, service provider space for a long time with Sparfax, uh, then at Panasonic for many years, and more on the digital technology side, and then back on the obviously on the airline side at United.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think um it's the ability to interact with a lot of great people around the world in different pieces of the experience, whether it's you know, engineers and technology and software developers, or on the kind of completely the other end, the kind of creative um folks that are in the industry and and all the content players.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the ability to do something that's a combination of entertainment and aviation is, I mean, maybe it's not the same today as it used to be, but when I kind of started, those were the two hot areas that everyone wanted to get into.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like everyone wanted to work for when I was in the UK, the BBC, or you know, here in the US, it was working for the studios was one of the top things to do.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if not working for an airline was like this amazing cool thing to do.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: So that kind of merge of both those very glamorous roles is kind of just really interesting.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I I think it still is, even though things have shifted a bit and we're we're not just focused on delivering the best movies and TV shows, it's still a really interesting um area.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then doesn't matter what you're doing, even behind the scenes, at the end of the day, we're delivering this kind of amazing um experience for our you know, the end users, which are the flying customers, um, which a lot of us also are.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just great to be able to get feedback from customers or experience it yourselves and and see the great work that we all do.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what keeps me excited.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Excellent.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um not content with all the many things that uh you have to do in with United Hat on Dom.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: You also are president of Apex and take on that role and are shaping an organization, an association that really acts as a conduit for driving some of the advances um we've been talking about in IFE.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: Tell us about that role and why it's important um to have an organization like Apex championing some of the um the innovations that we're seeing.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I well generally I think the role of Apex is really important because we, as a non-profit membership-driven association, we can take a bit of a different view to um organizations that are just revenue generating trade shows, um, not diminishing the role of those.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um there are a lot of fantastic events around the world that are really important for um us as airlines to connect with different vendors and share information.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_00: But uh as a as a kind of membership organization, we can take a slightly different view and focus on things that I think are really important for members that aren't just about um the trade show piece of it.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: So um knowledge sharing and thought leadership and networking are just, you know, they're all things that our members tell us that we need to be doing and should be doing more of.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: So being able to do that and not just be reliant on how much revenue we're driving is is a really um important part of that.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then personally, I was involved with the Apex board before um and then um kind of did did did did my time um and and kind of came off the board um about eight, nine years ago.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then when the opportunity came up as an airline to kind of rejoin, um it was just really interesting because Apex is going through a bit of a um you know um phase of evolution.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: We'd come out of COVID where the you know the whole trade show industry had been kind of hit pretty badly.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then um the industry itself had kind of changed a lot in some cases, you know, structurally, not just temporarily because of COVID.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it was a real opportunity to come in as part of a great team and look at what how do we reshape the organization for what our members need today and in the future.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's obviously, as you know, a process we're going through right now.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: The kind of acquisition of and the kind of alignment with FTE is a key part of delivering something that's great for all of our members in the future.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: So um, yeah, that's why it's important for me, you know, different approach from maybe a traditional trade show driven setup, um, something that's kind of more in tune with what our members are looking for, but specific to Apex, like evolving us to be better fit for the future.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's I mean, it's you know, worthy altruism, really, because sometimes you can be sitting around the table and balling into competitors, you know, nominal competitors, but in the association model, you're all working for the greater good and and um you know you're putting some of those competitive interests away and outside the room to um deliver progress.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you find it often, you know, take out your kind of uh even even when I was on the vendor side as Panasonic and as as Sparfax on as on the Epex board previously in in with both those companies, um I'll be as Panasonic satellite someone from Palace, for example, when I was at Sparfax, sat along someone side someone from um in flight productions, now now Newview.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um and you find you actually have a lot more in common than you do um, you know, yes, when we're in the kind of in certain forums, we're competing for the same customers, um, and you're kind of conscious and careful of what you're talking about and sharing there.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_00: But actually a lot of what we're trying to get out of the industry as a whole is is is common and shared.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I hopefully you're seeing that, you know, coming into some of the board sessions.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, you set aside your competitive differences because actually what we have in common is usually more of the majority, and that and that helps us to evolve and develop what we're doing for our members.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think we'll get there faster and we'll go further if if we can do it together right.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: We can pull as one other than um a disparate band.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um no, but it's it it it is very impressive.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: And long may it continue.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Just looking at that future, I mean, be fascinated to know from your perspective, paint us a picture of how you see the future of IFE, say in the next 10, 15 years, how different it might look getting on board an aircraft at this stage, sort of towards I guess uh the 2040s.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_01: You know, what will the expassionate experience be like that is different to today?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: First um thought 2040s, I'm hopefully going to be retired.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm not gonna have to think too much about what enjoy the Wi-Fi and uh check out the latest men.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's yeah, so hopefully I'll be a kind of traveling customer and be able to experience what everyone's doing rather than worrying about it.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: But no, I I think um there are two elements of what a lot of us are really exploring and diving into today.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: I I'd like to say I think United, along with a couple of other peers, are kind of really forefront of a lot of the work that's being done in that space.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't want it to be just us.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is a great space for a lot of different players to come in and bring their own ideas and deliver features and capabilities that are relevant and unique for their kind of customers and their their parts of the world.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um but I think leveraging um super fast connectivity is is is finally becoming a huge differentiator.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um we're kind of I think we're almost just dipping our toes in and dabbling into that space right now.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it'd be really interesting to see how that evolves and what the experience is like in 10 years based on everything being connected.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um and then I think personalization, we talked about that a little bit early on.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: I again, I think that's a very um lightly touched space as well.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that one's even more unexplored than connected experiences because to be honest, what we do on the plane, we can just replicate what's happening on the ground, ground because we now we have the same internet that they have.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, in some cases, arguably better.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: We've done some stuff on the plane, and we're like, this is working better than it does in the lab, in the office.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but but personalization, I think, is is a is a real differentiator.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if we can all start cracking that nut and getting um relevant and um impactful, positively impactful personalized experiences in front of our customers, that's gonna be the real differentiator.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, being able to sit down in a seat and have something that's um appropriately kind of curated for me is gonna be fantastic.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think those are two areas, uh maybe no no specific uh haven't mentioned any specific features or capabilities, because I think I'd be wrong if I did that because stuff changes every year.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's something new every kind of year, but I think those are two kind of themes that are just starting to be explored and it'll be a really interesting over the next decade or so.
• 46:47
  unknown: I don't know.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was just reading, Domer, the uh the the report of your uh presentation, I think at a recent Apex event, and then during the QA, somebody had asked you what keeps you up at night, and you said everything.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: But um you seem very uh you know assured, knowledgeable, and composed talking about the challenges and what's in the future.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_01: So um I can't imagine you struggle to get to sleep with some of this because I think you've got a plan and you know what the trends the customers want, and there's a stroke a strategy in place that you believe in.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: So um do you do you feel that tension the stress and the tension of what might happen, that challenge coming along, or do you feel reassured that you know with the strategy United have got you know where you're going?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: I feel I think we, me and and the team as a whole, I think we feel confident about what we're doing.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think um maybe it's not so much like a negative stress, it's more like anticipation about what we do next.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of uncertainties like technology, um, what people are doing at home is changing constantly.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a year or more ago, we knew about AI, but we didn't really know what it was going to do for us.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a I don't see it as a threat.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_00: I see it as a kind of uh maybe a bit of a challenge, but hopefully uh a support for us as well.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: If we can if I can automate, you know, half of our movie and TV decisions, that's not a threat to the team that's doing that.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's a help because that frees them up to do even more great stuff that AI can't and maybe will never let us do.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I think what keeps me up and and is is more the excitement about what we can do next.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, there's a bit of stress there.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, um sometimes, even though the stress is is is it is a is more of an interesting challenge because people are learning about what we're doing with IFE and with what we're doing with Connective on board and kind of onboard digital in general.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it means we've we've got got now got way more stakeholders than we had a couple years ago.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because people are realizing what we can do, that it's this really compelling digital channel, and they all want to come in and play in that space.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a kind of that's a stress at times because like how are we going to manage this?
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: This is not just about entertainment.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a bit of there was a bit of advertising there before.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now our loyalty people want to come in and communicate with our customers, um, our kind of co-brand card teams want to be in there, retail is an opportunity.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we've got all these kind of folks coming in, but um it's an interesting challenge because it means we're actually delivering what we set out to do a few years ago, which is creating this kind of amazing, engaging marketing channel that everyone wants to be a part of.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_01: They're good problems to have.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, good problems to have.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Dom, thank you so much for uh your insightful uh comments and educating us this afternoon.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we wish you um every success with a continuing rollout of uh the uh seatback systems on the fleet and with Starlink.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_01: And we look forward to following the journey and hearing more from you very soon.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_01: Great.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, Max.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a pleasure to have a chat.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.