entertainment & connectivity WHAT'S NEW?
Richard Williams tours the stands at APEX Singapore gathering news and spotting trends
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APEX audience told to learn from hotels Over 2000-plus registrants and 123 exhibitors gathered at the APEX Expo in Singapore last month co-located this year with AIX Asia and FTE Asia. The combined event was billed as a one-stop shop for airlines and also saw a line-up of interesting and informative speakers share their onboard product updates and highlight trends and developments for the future. Pekka Vauramo, ceo Finnair, suggested that airlines should model themselves on the hotel industry by avoiding commoditisation and offering a clearly differentiated product. With airline traffic growing at 4.8% the rising number of air travellers was an opportunity, he added. Finnair undertook an essential ‘trimming’ programme which ended in 2014, and Vauramo insisted costcutting was not the way to create a great airline. He said Finnair's 'unique Nordic experience' was reflected in every element of their service, from their new A350 aircraft, to airy lounges and onboard meals with locally-sourced ingredients. This approach had been successful particularly with their Asian customers, and had produced annual growth of 8%. Linda Celestino, vp guest services
Etihad, talked of the airline's double digit growth year-on-year and said Etihad's success came from benchmarking against outstanding hotels rather than other airlines. With 6500 crew from 140 countries, Michelin-starred chefs, nannies from London's elite Norland College, and Savoy-trained butlers, she said that Etihad's people-focused ethos supported strong brand values. Ingo Wuggetzer, vp cabin marketing Airbus, saw connectivity as a key issue for airlines. Pointing out that no airlines
were connected in 2007 while 74 now had connectivity, he said that passengers now expected this and up to 65% were viewing it as key when choosing which airline to use. He said that the A350XWB was their first 'digital native' aircraft, 100% being supplied with connectivity installed. He looked forward to 2025, when 17,000 aircraft would be connected, and passengers would enjoy managing their journeys with 'easy, seamless, door-todoor connectivity'.