Last week, AirFi hosted 45 guests at its new headquarters in The Hague, Netherlands during its second AirFi Customer Days event. The two-day affair brought together a number of AirFi’s global airline customers and members of the AirFi supplier ecosystem to share and explore best practices when using inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) systems as tools to generate ancillary revenue.
Speakers on the carefully crafted agenda included Housam Raydan, Air Arabia’s Director of Corporate Communications and Customer Experience, who discussed managing the carrier’s inflight entertainment systems as it quickly scales up operations; and Benoit Vignon, Head of Group Sales at Newrest, who presented a case study on the company’s rail operations to offer takeaways for the aviation industry.
Airline revenue economist Oliver Ranson presented an overview of the IFEC business and its future outlook, while aviation journalist Seth Miller moderated Q&As following the speaker’s sessions.
The get-together coincided with the formal opening of AirFi’s new Den Haag premises, so on the first evening the guests were part of a champagne reception for 100 people. But it wasn’t all business! They were also invited to a gala dinner at Madurodam, the Dutch miniature city, where they had the opportunity to climb aboard “The Flying Dutchman,” one of the last DC-10 aircraft in the Netherlands.
“Our Customer Days event had a truly vibrant atmosphere, with airlines and suppliers making new connections and sharing expertise. Everybody took home novel ideas about ways to use the tools they all have in their toolboxes,” said Job Heimerikx, AirFi’s CEO. “It’s important for us to do this often, and we’re really looking forward to next year’s iteration of AirFi Customer Days in Hamburg, that will be combined with our Fly Day.”
Finally, AirFi Customer Days gave attendees a sneak peek at various new concepts that the company will bring to market to further strengthen its “Mall in the Sky” concept. Watch this space as we’ll be announcing more on that soon!