FROM THE EXHIBITION HALL
Aircraft Interiors: HeiQ Viroblock Plane Talking Products is bringing HeiQ’s Viroblock to the cabin. The British company is offering a range of personal protective equipment, headrest covers, sprays and even fogging products that use HeiQ’s laboratory-engineered treatments meant to up the anti-viral protection on textiles. Bonus: By purchasing a suite of HeiQ Viroblock products and services at a certain volume, airlines obtain the right to use the Viroblock branding to market their sanitization efforts.
In-Flight Service: Sustainability Promise In an industry first, amenities provider FORMIA is making a sustainability pledge. During Virtual Expo, it shared more about its strategy to make all in-flight socks and eye masks from 100 percent recycled PET fabric. This means that the virgin polyester normally used to make these accessories will be changed to recycled PET and will carry the Global Recycled Standard (GRS) certification. To drive the initiative forward, FORMIA is absorbing the additional cost of the material, rendering the move cost neutral for airlines and beneficial for supporting their sustainability efforts.
Airport Experience: SMARTRA
Entertainment & Connectivity: IFEData
Japanese startup T&TIS aims to take the guesswork out of airport transit times with its SMARTRA service. The solution uses a system of checkpoints that can be placed around a facility to collect real-time data about things like waiting times at the security line or how long it takes to transfer from one terminal to the next. Passengers for instance can “scan” the checkpoint using their NFCequipped device soon after exiting the plane and then again when arriving at the gate of their next flight, giving other SMARTRA users the ability to plan their transit and avoid congested areas of the airport. Check-ins can also be collected by camera, bar code scan or even beacon – depending on the environment. Like the navigation app WAZE, SMARTRA uses a system of redeemable points to incentivize the desired crowd-sourcing behavior. The company also sees a benefit to operators, providing them with a better understanding of how people move through the airport. For instance, retailers could use the information to allocate staff and create targeted promotions for travelers.
Software company IFEData is on a mission to overcome disparate data and workflows by consolidating and automating them. Its web app, introduced to distributors, airlines and content service providers at Virtual Expo, is an à la carte service that allows customers to pick and choose the content that benefits them most and gives content owners and licensors the option to add their own titles. It is a neutral platform for offering titles, publicity and data – automating that data’s journey to wherever it needs to go.
Expo Daily Experience
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