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Thales received the award for the installation of its TopSeries? advanced passenger entertainment system on 23 Boeing 777 operated by Air India. This is a line-fit program that calls for the Thales TopSeries digital audio and video on-demand at every seat with 23 inch displays in first class, 15 inch displays in business class and 10.6 inch displays in economy class seats. Every screen is in the 16:9 widescreen format and is touch screen. Each seat will also have laptop power and a noise cancelling module for high fidelity sound.
This order comes after the airline’s initial decision to install the TopSeries system on 6 Boeing 747 aircraft, which was announced in September 2005. “The TopSeries system is once again the right choice for Air India. Air India is stepping up its passenger services and IFE is one of the good examples. We found the Thales system to be the most integrated system that efficiently packages all that we want in an IFE system. We will offer our passengers the best onboard service and at the same time realize new cost savings as a result of the system’s lightweight design,” said a management representative of Air India.
The airline selected the Thales TopSeries? i-5000 on-demand system which is ideal for large aircraft and includes a gigabit Ethernet network for increased bandwidth for data throughput. In addition to the system, Air India will be supported by Thales’ media services group called TopEffects! Thales will work closely with the airline to ensure that the passenger experience is excellent.
“It is our pleasure to have Air India as one of our TopSeries customers. They have a strong future vision and Thales is ready to support it,” said Brad Foreman, Vice President and General Manager of Thales’ inflight entertainment business. The program kick-off has begun with the first revenue flight scheduled for February 2007.
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, serving defence, aerospace, security and services markets worldwide. The Group employs 60,000 people throughout the world and generated revenues of 10.3 billion euros in 2005.
Selected as the IFE product of choice for Product Differentiation and Innovation, Thales has received the 2005 Frost and Sullivan award in the field of In-flight Entertainment and Connectivity. Totalling over 40% market share in 2005, Thales is moving into a leadership position and is now ranked among the top three players in the IFE market. |
