American Airlines & Portable Entertainment22 Years in the Making!

Doug Backelin

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History of Portable Entertainment Devices (PEDs)

1985

Onboard rentals of

game devices on DC10 aircraft

1999

1st to provide DVD players on regularly scheduled

flights

20071995 2006

IMS 10.6” PED audio/video player on

international flights

This month, launched two

new PED products

Sony Walkman video players

on international flights

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767-300 Portable Entertainment

MD80 Portable Entertainment

767-200 Portable Entertainment

Secrets to Our Success

Passenger Satisfaction

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767-300 Portable Entertainment

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767-300 IFE Upgrade

Situation

• AA began development of its Next Generation Business Class seat

• Faced with aging DVD players, an IFE upgrade was required

Opportunity

First analyzed inseat IFE system vs. portable solution

Needed to reduce high capital costs

Needed to reduce maintenance costs

Needed compelling AVOD content

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The Result…

A Hybrid Solutiondeveloped by IMS

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767-300 PED…a Custom, Embedded Solution

• The 10.6” PED is a modified Fujitsu laptop with a branded AA GUI

• Customized seat shell can be changed out as PED technology evolves

• PEDs are boarded on the aircraft in catering carts along with Bose® QuietComfort® 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones and power cords

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Compelling AVOD

• Up to 14 feature films• Up to 15 hours of pre-

loaded television and news programs

• 50 music CDs• 10-15 music videos• 14 AA branded audio

channels• Headline news stories• Variety of games

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Audio and video content is updated monthly by IMS

Headline news stories from Reuters via Blast!,

the first daily Web Services-based news delivery in IFE!

PEDs are on all 767-300 international flights to and from the United States (58 aircraft / 30 seatsper aircraft)

Rockwell Collins is the provisioner for the767-300 PED program

767-300 PED Logistics

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MD80 Portable Entertainment

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MD80 PED – Made for Portable Entertainment

Situation

• 330 domestic MD80 aircraft don’t have IFE installed

• 200+ flights per day with flight times 3.5 hours or longer

• Late 2004 / early 2005, AA tested renting the IMS Mini-Pea on long-haul MD80 flights

• Put on hold in August 2005 due to high cost of customized PEDs

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Situation - Critical MD80 Size and Weight Limitations

• Only location available was a storage “dog house” behind the last row of First Class

• The PEDs, spare batteries, and headphones all had to fit into a carrying case to fit through a 9” x 17” opening

• Everything had to weigh less than 40 lbs. total due to the dog house weight limitation

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MD80 PED – Made for Portable Entertainment

Opportunity

• October 2005, Apple introduced its video iPod product, validating the PMP market and becoming the PMP market share leader

• AA realized the opportunity to work with other manufacturers to utilize a common off-the-shelf PMP as an onboard PED

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The MD80 PED “Kennel”

– Soft sided canvas carrying case– Three stacking plastic trays with

foam inserts– Capacity to board up to 42 PEDs,

spare batteries, and headsets

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American Airlines, ARCHOS and IMS

• ARCHOS 604 was selected for MD80s

• The PAV 604 needed modification prior to boarding on aircraft

• It was converted from a commercial off the shelf based solution into airline approved equipment

• Received studio approval for early window content

• Received both software and hardware modification to receive studio approval

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MD80 Onboard Inventory Control

• AA provides PEDs complimentary in First Class and rents them in the Main Cabin

• Flight Attendants must have correct tools to manage the process of handing out and retrieving the PEDs

• AA has equipped its entire fleet of aircraft with onboard sales recorders (OSRs)

• A MD80 PED inventory control application and PED rental application have been added to OSRs

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MD80 Onboard Inventory Control

• With the OSR, Flight Attendants can:– Verify the opening inventory

of PEDs boarded– Check out or rent (credit

card only) PEDs by barcode number and by seat number

– Conduct a closing inventory report, including missing PEDs

– Wirelessly upload inventory and sales rental data at the end of the flight

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MD80 Off-aircraft PED Inventory Control

• SCIS is the provisioner for the MD80 PED program

• SCIS is responsible for:– Boarding and retrieving the PED “kennel” for

qualifying MD80 long haul flights– Tracking PED inventory at the barcode level– Recharging PED batteries at the end of every flight– Updating PED content on a monthly basis

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Compelling Content Updates

• MD80 PEDs are currently being tested on flights between ORD and LAX

• Monthly Content Includes– 4 Early Window Movie Titles– 1 Classic Movie Title– 450 minutes of TV and Music

Videos– 50 CD's– 14 AA branded audio channels

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767-200 Portable Entertainment

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767-200 Transcontinental PEDSituation

AA previously provided DVD players and a DVD library to First Class passengers on its 767-200 transcontinental flights (15 total aircraft)

Opportunity

• With the selection of the PAV604 device for the MD80 fleet came the opportunity to replace the aging DVD players with the larger PAV704 model (7” screen) on 767-200 flights

• AA expanded the 767-200 PED program to First and Business Class

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PAV704 on the 767-200s

• 7” high resolution screen, 80GB storage option• PAV704s are also boarded on the aircraft in catering

carts along with Bose® QuietComfort® 3 Acoustic Noise Cancelling® headphones and power cords

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IMS Provides a Total Solution for PEDs

Despite using different devices on 767-200 & 767-300 aircraft, utilizing IMS as the PED integrator we are able to load both devices with identical content sets, driving simplicity and economies of scale!

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Greatest Keys to our Success…

• One of the greatest keys to our success managing three different PED products has been the utilization of a common back-of-house support infrastructure developed by IMS

• The IMS Content Load Station (CLS) and associated Ground Pods (GPOD’s) offer:

– AA a fully automated– Easy to use– Robust solution for uploading new content– Offloading usage and transactional data from units

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Greatest Keys to our Success…

• The CLS/GPODS represent an advanced portable communication solution

• Connecting each device via a docking port to IMS headquarters

– direct content licensing– software updates– data offload

• The CLS and GPODs are complemented by IMS Battery Charge Stations, galley cart inserts and onboard carrying cases.

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PAV 704On 767-200

10.6 inch On 767-300

TDLOn 767

TDLOn 777

G POD CLS

PAV 604On MD-80

Greatest Keys to our Success…

Back of houseinfrastructure

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The Same Digital Content Infrastructure

• AA is utilizing this same infrastructure to support its current and future digital content systems, regardless of IFE system manufacturer– The CLS is utilized to create removable hard drives (RHDD) for

loading in IMS terminal data loaders (TDLs) installed on 767-300 aircraft that feed a Panasonic overhead video server

– The CLS will be utilized to create RHDDs for loading in IMS TDLs installed on 777 aircraft was the are upgraded with Rockwell Collins digital AVOD servers

– The CLS will be utilized in a similar manner to provide content to digital file servers on AA’s 757 fleet and 767-200 fleet

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Passenger Satisfaction with PEDs

Prior to implementing the 767-300 PEDs across the entire fleet, AA conducted customer surveys

Comparing customers who had only experienced the DVD players

vs.

Customers who had experienced the 767-300 PED

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Passenger Satisfaction

The 767-300 PED content includes a voluntary passenger survey

PED Survey: Compared to Other Airlines, AA's IFE is:

Excellent Good Average Poor Extemely Poor

PED Survey: IFE Satisfaction Ratings

Excellent Good Average Poor Extemely Poor

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767-300 Business Class Survey – PEDs vs. DVDs

Online Survey: DVD Player Video Equipment Ratings

Excellent Good Average Poor Extremely Poor

Online Survey: PED Video Equipment Ratings

Excellent Good Average Poor Extremely Poor

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767-300 Business Class Survey – IFE Programming

Online Survey: DVD Player IFE Programming

Excellent Good Average Poor Extremely Poor

Online Survey: PED IFE Programming

Excellent Good Average Poor Extremely Poor

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In Summary…

• AA has a rich pedigree using PEDs• As part of broader aircraft cabin improvement

projects, AA pursued IFE solutions that would offer an excellent customer experience, along with lower cost and flexibility

• PEDs are proving themselves on both international and domestic flights

• AA and IMS developed a back of house solution that facilitates multiple IFE systems and devices