Why are apps increasingly being used onboard?
Apps have become central to the onboard experience because they offer a seamless way to personalise and enhance the passenger journey. Personalisation is pivotal to modern inflight entertainment (IFE) solutions as passengers want their in-cabin experience to mirror their digital journey on the ground.
Airlines are now responding to this demand by integrating apps into their inflight ecosystem, whether it’s services like digital menus, seatback screen pairing or even contactless ordering. Panasonic Avionics is focused on helping airlines meet these demands by designing systems that make apps an integral part of the inflight journey, rather than just an add-on.
What do apps offer airlines, their crews and passengers?
We take a holistic approach to apps. They complement our advanced IFE platforms, like Astrova, by being integrated to enhance the digital ecosystem onboard, delivering impactful benefits to airlines, crew members and passengers alike.
For passengers, apps enable a smooth, personalised and connected in-flight experience. Astrova supports direct integration with all leading subscription services such as Netflix, Spotify, Apple Music, and Disney+, allowing passengers to access their favourite content right from the seatback screen. This familiar, app-driven interface brings the digital lifestyle onboard, making passengers feel more at home while in the air.
For airlines, Astrova’s app ecosystem offers unmatched flexibility and scalability. Its modular design allows carriers to introduce or upgrade digital services, such as contactless ordering, dynamic menus, or loyalty-driven content, without overhauling the hardware. This ensures that airlines can stay ahead of evolving passenger expectations and technology trends with minimal aircraft downtime.
Astrova also connects effortlessly with airline loyalty programmes and digital platforms, enabling personalised content bundles, exclusive shopping offers and premium connectivity packages. Thanks to enhanced in-flight connectivity, Astrova supports real-time transactions, allowing passengers to make purchases mid-flight.
For crew members, apps support more efficient and personalised service delivery. With real-time passenger data, simplified content controls, and features like meal pre-ordering, crews can tailor the onboard experience while enhancing workflow and reducing complexity.
What are the trends relating to app usage onboard?
Across the industry, app usage onboard is being shaped by growing demand for personalisation, digital convenience and new revenue opportunities.
One key trend is the rise of targeted advertising, powered by app-based platforms that use passenger preferences and behaviour to deliver more relevant content.
From a revenue and marketing perspective, Astrova empowers airlines with new monetisation avenues. Through app-enabled targeted advertising and data-driven personalisation, airlines can serve contextually relevant ads.
Astrova also allows airlines to promote destination-specific services such as hotels, excursions, or car rentals mid-flight, increasing ancillary revenue potential.
These capabilities are consistent with wider industry trends, as in-flight advertising markets are expected to grow significantly due to enhanced passenger engagement and the rise of digital platforms.
What is the technology that supports apps and why are there currently developments in this area?
The technology that supports onboard apps includes a combination of application hosting platforms, powerful onboard computing and storage, real-time data integration, and modern development tools such as APIs (application programming interfaces) and SDKs (software development kits).
These components allow apps to run securely and efficiently within the aircraft environment, without constant reliance on ground-based systems.
What’s driving developments in this space is a clear shift in airline priorities. Airlines want more control over their passenger experience, and the agility to update or deploy digital services independently of traditional IFE upgrade cycles.
There’s also growing demand to personalise the onboard journey, streamline crew workflows, and connect cabin systems to broader airline operations in real time.
In response, we have introduced Converix, our next-generation hosting platform, which we launched earlier this year.
Converix serves as a digital backbone for the aircraft, acting as a convergence layer that connects all onboard systems, from IFEC and lighting to galleys and cargo. It’s designed to support app hosting, real-time data processing and seamless integration of both airline-developed and third-party applications.
Designed for universal integration, Converix can be installed by any aircraft manufacturer on any airframe type. It helps airlines monitor aircraft health, streamline crew workflows, manage cabin inventory and optimise predictive maintenance.
To help airlines manage and evolve their digital services, we also offer tools like incremental package deployment for the IFE OS and our Modular Interactive GUI (MIG), which make it easier to customise and update the passenger interface.
Anything else that’s worth mentioning?
With an increasing computing power and storage capacity available onboard, we’re entering a new era for digital solutions in the cabin. This technological foundation enables far more than just entertainment; it opens the door to a fully responsive, intelligent onboard experience.
Panasonic Avionics believes that artificial intelligence will play a key role in this evolution. With access to over 10,000 real-time datapoints across the aircraft, AI can deliver meaningful services centred around the passenger experience. Imagine a virtual cabin attendant at every seat, capable of helping passengers track their luggage, check the status of connecting flights, order drinks, arrange ground transport or confirm hotel and rental car bookings, all through a single, intuitive interface.
