For Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, ‘there is nothing permanent except change’, and for JetBlue, it’s all change for its A320 cabin interior.
This week, the airline revealed the first complete restyle of its A320 interior since it launched in 2000.
As part of its efforts to bring “living-room comfort to the sky”, new features include larger seatback TVs, more channels, streaming entertainment, free gate-to-gate high-speed internet, and what it claims is the most legroom in economy and the widest, most comfortable A320 seats.
The project will take three years, with 12 A320s completed by the end of this year, accelerating to multiple aircraft each month by 2019.
But the biggest change announced this week is India’s decision to implement recommendations to allow in-flight connectivity in its airspace. It’s expected that services will be operational by the end of summer, with foreign carriers the first to provide on-board Wi-Fi to the region, as domestic airlines make the necessary investment in infrastructure.
With China slowly relaxing its rules restricting the use of electronic devices on planes, instead leaving it to the discretion of the airlines, Wi-Fi hotspots are being filled, providing a vast opportunity to all players involved in the in-flight connectivity market.
We await to see who is best placed to capitalise on this change.
Talking of change, you may notice our e-newsletter looks a little different this week. As part of the new design, the weekly editor’s comment previously shared in the e-newsletter will now be published on the Inflight website too. If you do not currently receive our email updates, you can subscribe here.
