As a means of generating ancillary revenue in these recessionary times, airlines are increasingly including commercial content into their IFE (In Flight Entertainment) offerings. South African low cost airline Mango presently enjoys ancillary revenues from commercial space on its IFE.
Mango CEO Nico Bezuidenhout says that the recession has forced many companies to rethink the way in which they do business. “Airlines are more aggressively pursuing new opportunities – with onboard mobile telephony seen as one of the next great opportunities, serving to directly address the passengers’ communication needs whilst being an enabling platform for transactional activity in much the same way the Internet is.”
As he points out, airlines have a big advantage – a captive audience with disposable income.
