Philips Electronics NV may have been a little hasty when it sold its Valencia, California-based Philips Airvision unit to BE Aerospace Inc of Wellington, Florida for about $12m last October – under its new ownership, the company, which already did its own in-flight systems – is chortling over an UKP80m – $120m order from British Airways Plc to equip all seats on its entire long-haul fleet with a new 24-channel interactive entertainment system featuring gambling and home-delivery shopping as well as music and video on demand and in-flight telephone service. We have spent a great deal of time over the past couple of years looking for the ultimate in-flight entertainment and information system and we believe we’ve now found it, British Airways managing director Robert Ayling declares. The shopping, telecommunications and gambling revenues should pay for the entire system in a matter of years, the airline says. Its passengers will get complete control in choosing and playing the films, music and games on offer, will be able to receive and make phone calls anywhere in the world, play blackjack and roulette and bet on recorded horse races. It will be fitted on a Boeing 747 for tests early next year with a view to equipping all 30,000 seats on the airline’s fleet of 85 long-haul aircraft by the end of 1996. British Airways also has an option to fit the system on its fleet of 125 short-haul aircraft.The order for BE Aerospace is a blow for GEC-Marconi, which had hoped to win the airline’s business with the Plessey in-flight entertainment system. A version of the system, which uses a 6 liquid crystal diode display in each seatback, has been installed in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class.
