Bluebox Aviation Systems, Paul Rayson at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - Airlines in Transition 2024

Transcript

Paul Rayson:We're at a very interesting stage, and I think being here at the conference with the themes that you have, it's showing some very interesting areas in the digitization, because actually the portion that isn't supported at the moment is the in-flight part of it. There's a lot of work going on in the booking path. But once the passenger is on the aircraft, in the unconnected world at the moment, there's very little engagement. And that's the bit that we're excited about because we can deliver something now. And if you look at what's happening with connectivity, even up to 2031, from the research that we have, there's only going to be half the fleet that's actually connected. So there's a very large portion, particularly in the low-cost carriers and the regionals that won't have a connected experience for quite some years to come, and we are excited about that. The connectivity is an important part, and I think as airlines transition, one of the things they need to consider is how they can engage currently with the passenger at that stage. And if you look at it, there's a real gap because in an unconnected aircraft, the airlines have no link to the passenger during that part of the experience, the part when they're delivering the actual service that the passenger has bought. So in focusing on something where you can create a portal and be able to engage in some way, that is a critical area. And our heritage is in-flight entertainment. The IFE is the entertainment. But we very much now, with the layers of software we have in BlueView, think that it's IFE with 3 Es. It's about earning, it's about engaging, and it is also about delivering entertainment. So that additional piece is a very exciting area that we're getting a lot of traction in the market. I think if you take what airlines are doing now in an unconnected world, you have the point-of-sale devices that are part of a trolley experience, and we've all had that experience on an airline service. The engagement could go up significantly because through a portal, instead of using a card in the back of the seat or just waiting for the trolley to come through, you could end up presenting the shop and also your duty-free if you have that as well. Over the time of the flight, you can decide when to open the shops. I think the technology for the passenger engagement is very strong, because that then gives a lot more browsing time and a lot more time to buy. Even just keeping the payment part the same with the point-of-sale devices that are on the trolley, so without a lot of change there. And I think for the airline, there's a huge improvement that can be gained because you can take a lot more data from those sales that are made, And get it earlier and in a more complete way, which gives the airline massive logistic advantage in terms of managing the supply chain, managing the inventory, and reducing the cost of that. So even if you didn't sell more, the airline could have a more efficient operation. And then, of course, the other themes that we've been talking about with AI and all the data, with all that information, you can make the retail experience better by having the right product. at the right time, and therefore you would see the volumes go up. So the AI piece of it that we are partnering with other organizations, I think we can deliver there as well. I think our challenge is that airlines currently want to work through whether they have a connectivity strategy, and those are big investment decisions. And in order to make that decision, sometimes the good old situation of not making it early enough and taking time to assess it Is a problem. What we have now is something that's deployable very quickly and at a lower price point. So you can already make a business case now to be able to start moving on that digital journey in the one piece that's missing at the moment. So I am excited by it, but I think one of the challenges will be they want to try and move towards the very complex decisions they have to make over connectivity where You could choose equipment that you are stuck with for quite a period of time. So that's a scary thought in an environment— I think airlines don't like to take risk overall. So we're encouraged by the fact we have something that can deliver very quickly. Thank you very much, Paul.

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