Focus on: Rapid retail

Minime Labs, a start-up in Cyprus, is offering an inflight entertainment system that is built for rapid deployment and nimble onboard retailing. Nik Loukas discovers more

Minime Labs’ goal is to provide airlines with a complete turnkey IFE solution which offers maximum engagement with passengers for a minimum investment. It uses a FlyingPlaza product to entertain, engage and transact onboard in a way that enhances the airline’s bottom line.

Airlines using the product can secure additional ancillary revenue streams through the content, targeted advertising, onboard shopping and destination bookings, all sold on a share-of-revenue model, with a minimum income guaranteed. Sales projections are strong with potential for exponential growth over the longer term.

The new system is being offered to airlines for a fraction of the cost of wireless systems. Dino Demetriou ceo of Minime Labs, says: ''By concentrating on this segment we are able to transform inflight entertainment from a cost centre to a profit centre.''

The product is hardware agnostic and customisable. ''Instead of looking at the solution as an app, it is more like an Android or Apple platform of the skies that incorporates hundreds of new revenue streams never heard of up until now',' adds Demetriou.

Passengers are able to use the system on their preferred devices to order meals, shop, and access a wide range of entertainment options as well as being able to access newspapers and magazines. For inflight meal orders passengers use their own devices, and crew deliver the items when ready. For the crew it's as simple as receiving an order notification in the galley, preparing it and delivering.

For airlines the benefit is that there is no specialist fitting, no downtime, no loss of earnings and a semi-permanent installation.

The Airbox 3.0 holds RTCA DO-160G Certification as is required by all TPED (Transportable Pressure Equipment Directive) devices for use onboard aircraft. It can be installed within three months or less depending on the airline’s requirements. More importantly compared to other systems this product only requires one Airbox 3.0 per narrowbody aircraft.

Mobile IFE solutions also offer opportunities for customer segmentation and new ancillary revenue streams.

Because the passenger is identified, and has potential history with the airline, it is much easier to segment the content by customer class or loyalty programme status and give, for example, access to the content as an incentive for continued loyalty. It is also much easier to provide each passenger with the most relevant content based on their past usage and current destination. minime-labs.com

We are able to transform inflight entertainment from a cost centre to a

profit centre