Some news from APEX Expo, where  Qatar Airways and Thales have signed an agreement to equip Qatar Airways’ new A321neo fleet with the world’s first cloud-native inflight entertainment platform – FlytEDGE.

It marks the first customer of the FlytEDGE product, which was a recent winner at the Crytal Cabin Awards.

FlytEDGE utilises cloud computing technologies with an open software platform to aid delivery.  It is powered by an Onboard Data Centre, utilisng blade-type servers to process, whilst providing  96TB of storage to enable onboard edge caching of content.

In terms of what the passengers will see, they will have access to 4K QLED HDR seatback displays which can display over 1 billion vibrant colours, whilst allowing two Bluetooth connections to be made – allowing passengers to pair personal devices such as headsets and controllers.

The user experience will be uniform throughout – with the system broadcasting the same user interface onboard for all devices- phones, tablets and seatback screens.

Finally, for those who want to charge whilst in the air, the Pulse power management solution will deliver high-speed charging at each seat to any passenger device – allowing for up to 65 watts of power to the seat.

In Quotes

Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Product Development, Xia Cai said: 

“At Qatar Airways, we continue to enhance our world-leading passenger experience, and providing passengers with top-quality inflight entertainment forms a key part of this approach. As our digital transformation journey evolves, we are thrilled to partner with Thales to introduce FlytEDGE onto our entertainment platform. We are confident passengers on our A321 NX fleet will have access to the most innovative consumer technology in the skies.”

Thales Avionics, Executive Vice-President, Yannick Assouad said:

 “At Thales, we believe that the future of inflight entertainment is limitless. We are harnessing the power of technology to create personalized, interactive, and unforgettable experiences that redefine what it means to travel. Our partnership with Qatar Airways is growing stronger. Together, we’re bringing FlytEDGE’s advanced capabilities to their A321 NX fleet, ensuring passengers have unforgettable journeys.”

A continuing partnership

Over the years, Qatar Airways has partnered with Thales as its IFE provider to equip their Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, A350 and A380 aircraft.

This new agreement expands the collaboration to the A321neo fleet, building on the long-standing relationship between the two companies and their shared commitment to deliver a superior passenger experience.

We’ll have to see how this plays out – but Qatar Airways has taken a lot of FlytEdge and has ran with it.

It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out in the real world.

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