Guest article by Paul Bilham, Chief Commercial Officer, Immfly
Paul Bilham is the Chief Commercial Officer of Immfly, where he leads the company’s global commercial strategy and drives the adoption of connected retail and digital cabin solutions across airline partners worldwide.
For years, in‑flight connectivity has been framed primarily as a passenger feature — faster Wi‑Fi, better streaming, and a closer match to the on‑ground digital experience. The pressure to meet these expectations is rising, and high-speed connectivity will be essential to delivering the experience passengers want.
But that’s only one side of the story. The more immediate and transformative value lies in how the cabin itself operates. What was once seen as a differentiator is increasingly becoming a core operational capability.
Today, the cabin still runs with a built‑in lag, and that delay shapes how decisions are made across the network.
A System That Still Runs Behind Itself
Most onboard activity is only fully understood after the aircraft has landed. Retail performance, stock movements, payment validation, and engagement data are processed post‑flight, then fed back into planning for future sectors. In most cases, the systems that capture this information still operate independently or only synchronise once the flight is complete.
The model works, but it’s far from optimal. Catering is loaded based on historical patterns rather than recent demand. Some flights run out of popular items; others carry excess that goes unsold. Uplifts are still based on broad assumptions, with transactions only reconciled after the fact. This reliance on delayed insight limits how precisely airlines can manage onboard retail and service delivery in real time.
Individually, these inefficiencies are small. Across a high‑frequency operation, they compound.
What Connectivity Actually Changes
Connectivity can’t remove the physical constraints of the cabin — inventory is fixed, service windows are short, and crew workload defines what can be delivered. But it can dramatically improve execution.
In-seat ordering reshapes the service flow. Passengers can browse and order directly, reducing the need for repeated trolley passes and allowing crew to focus on fulfilment. This improves consistency, especially on short‑haul routes. It also gives airlines clearer visibility into what passengers are actually browsing and purchasing during the flight.
Real‑time payment authorisation removes a persistent friction point. Transactions are validated during the flight rather than reconciled later, reducing fraud exposure and eliminating post‑flight uncertainty. This is increasingly important as payment fraud continues to impact airline revenue, with industry estimates showing losses exceeding $1 billion annually, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Live inventory visibility improves at the same time. Crew can see what’s available as it changes, reducing missed sales and avoiding out‑of‑stock situations. That visibility also feeds into ground operations, enabling more accurate replenishment throughout the day. Over time, this creates a clearer picture of demand patterns across routes, seasons, and passenger segments.
The outcome is straightforward: more consistent service, fewer lost sales, and higher onboard revenue where execution improves.
Low Bandwidth vs High Speed: Different Roles, Different Returns
Not all connectivity needs to be high‑speed to deliver value. Low‑to moderate‑bandwidth links are sufficient to support operational use cases — transaction authorisation, data syncing, and in‑flight visibility of performance. This tier is typically lower cost, faster to deploy, and delivers a more immediate return.
High‑speed connectivity serves a different purpose. It meets passenger expectations for streaming, browsing, and staying connected as on the ground. It supports customer experience and brand positioning, but with a different cost and return profile.
The components themselves aren’t new. What has changed is the practicality: connectivity is more reliable, hardware is lighter, and operational use cases no longer depend on high bandwidth. The economics have shifted, particularly where value isn’t tied solely to passenger usage. Advances in satellite technology, including the expansion of low Earth orbit (LEO) networks, are also making consistent connectivity more accessible across a wider range of aircraft types.
Where the Commercial Impact Shows Up
The gains from connectivity, especially on the operational side, are incremental but measurable.
In catering and retail, even small improvements in loading accuracy improve availability of high‑demand products while reducing unnecessary weight. On the revenue side, removing friction from ordering and payment increases conversion. These gains also support broader operational efficiency by lowering fuel burn and reducing waste across repeated short-haul sectors.
Payments follow a similar pattern. Moving from deferred validation to real‑time authorisation reduces reconciliation effort and limits fraud exposure. Across thousands of flights, these gains accumulate.
From Delayed Reporting to Faster Learning
When data is available immediately rather than post‑flight, airlines move from reacting to yesterday’s performance to understanding what’s happening in the cabin as it unfolds. Patterns in demand become visible sooner, and small shifts in behaviour — what passengers browse, what sells quickly, what consistently goes untouched — surface with far less delay.
That immediacy shortens the cycle between insight and action. Product mixes, pricing, and loading assumptions can be adjusted with more confidence and less lag, improving both availability and efficiency. Over time, this creates a faster learning loop where each flight informs the next, and the cabin becomes a more responsive part of the airline’s commercial and operational engine. As more data is collected, airlines can begin to move beyond reactive adjustments toward more predictive, data-driven decision making.
Integrating the Cabin Into the Airline’s Digital Ecosystem
The long‑term implication of the connected cabin lies in how it integrates with the airline’s broader digital strategy. Airlines have spent years modernising booking platforms, loyalty programmes, and digital retail environments. Bringing the cabin online allows that transformation to extend into the aircraft itself.
When in‑flight systems connect with the airline’s broader digital platforms, the cabin becomes part of the same commercial and operational environment as the rest of the journey. Instead of operating as isolated components, onboard services integrate into a single flow — creating a smoother experience for passengers and crew while giving airlines greater control and visibility across the entire travel journey.
At Immfly, we see airlines increasingly moving toward this unified approach, bringing together in‑flight entertainment, onboard retail, payments, and operational data within a single connected platform. As connectivity continues to mature, the real value will not just come from keeping passengers online, but from how effectively airlines use that connectivity to run a more responsive, data-driven operation in the air.
