Continental Airlines announced that economy passengers on some aircraft will now get to experience a taste of business class; the entertainment system. The airline said the audio/video on-demand inflight entertainment system has been installed onto 39 Boeing 757-200s in-service – many of them fly transatlantic routes from Newark. Another two will be refitted for the a/v system by December 23rd. By May 2009, 20 Boeing 777s are expected to have the inflight entertainment system in business and economy class.
Continental’s IFE features: 25 movies and television shows, 50 CDs of music, 20 video games, and the Berlitz Word Traveler program that helps you learn the language of where you’re going. The IFE (In-flight entertainment) is critical to every carrier’s in-flight experience. Red, Virgin America’s inflight entertainment system, compliments their successful in-flight setup quite nicely and has helped their view in the public eye significantly.
Although the industry is currently going through some tough times on the travel demand side, they do not have to suffer through high oil prices. As cuts continue, and airlines begin to churn up profits once again, I think we’ll see upgrades to the travel experience over the forthcoming months / years. Though this isn’t true for everyone, sometimes just looking out the window is suffice for IFE.
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