AS-IP Tech Inc (IPTK)

[MJAM2020]

Industry tidbit...

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2023/10/airfi-global-expo-job-heimerikx/

One-on-one with AirFi founding partner and CEO Job Heimerikx
By Mary Kirby ?
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Text 'RGN Q& A' on a red backdrop.
It’s no secret that portable wireless IFE provider AirFi sees the world’s narrowbody fleet as the addressable market for its AirFi LEO (Low Earth Orbit) inflight connectivity, but the company says the economics of the lightweight, low-bandwidth AirFi LEO solution are also proving attractive to some widebody operators.

Powered by Iridium’s new Certus 100 service, AirFi LEO can support real-time credit card verification and transactions on board; inflight messaging for passengers and crew; electronic flight bag (EFB) updates for pilots; and non-safety ACARS over IP. It features tiny window-mounted antennae plus a receiver from Iridium value added partner Skytrac, as well as AirFi’s onboard server/WAP hardware.

Runway Girl Network sat down with AirFi founding partner and CEO Job Heimerikx at the APEX/IFSA Global EXPO to learn why this IFC system is attracting so much attention.

RGN: What type of interest are you fielding for the AirFi LEO product?

Heimerikx: The fact that we don’t drill a hole in the fuselage and the fact that there is no deinstallation cost is massively appealing to any person or any airline that leases an aircraft. That’s where it starts.

The speed in which we can bring the solution to an aircraft also is being very much recognized by people because of the fact that we do not require for many of the aircraft — especially on the Airbus side — we do not require an STC. So we have a different engineering paperwork route. And that means we can also act incredibly fast.

The difficulty is that we obviously have a limited team because even though our entire team is slightly over 100 people, covering the entire world is pretty strenuous. So the only limitation that we have is our own capabilities but everything we discussed last time with regards to interest, and number of aircraft, that just went up.

RGN: So you’r staying in your sweet spot then. You don’t intend to enter into broadband inflight connectivity?

Heimerikx: Oh no, never. Our intellectual property, our interest, our knowledge, our approach is to drill no holes, which means we need to use the [aircraft] window. And if you use the window, with radiation, with antennas that are on the market, you don’t have much choice from a development and design point of view.

So, we found the most optimal satellite receiver and antenna that fits the window space for the majority of the aircraft out there. The strength that we do have … is that level of simplicity, which allows us to be able to deal with anybody around the world. And the simplicity in the antenna and the simplicity in the receiver all being from the same set-up means that we are able to supply all these people around the world in a much faster fashion than what you would expect from a regular IFEC company.


Rotation
RGN: Regarding supporting payments in real-time, where does that sit in the hierarchy of importance when you are talking about this AirFi LEO product?

Heimerikx: Depends on who pays the bill. So, validating payments is a massive cost reduction or revenue driver. It depends on how you look at it. It depends on where in the world you are but in the most optimal way, you are looking at 2% of missed payments [due to the lack of real-time CC validation on board aircraft]. In the more regular fashion, let’s say 5% or 6%. The moment you go into certain geographical areas that can grow all the way up to 10%. Now that’s all missed money.

If, then, you consider how many sales are done on a single flight leg, or per-day and you calculate that back on a per-monthly basis, before, that was a 100% loss. And now, it is being counted as revenue and that’s an incredibly appealing story for companies that do in-seat ordering, or that do food and beverages and duty free sales.

The other is the airlines that just want to provide a service. They want to go along in the marketing rat race that was initially initiated by the Ku/Ka-band guys that you have to be connected on board the aircraft. Like, so much marketing money has gone into the industry that everybody now is of the opinion that you have to be connected in order to be a proper airline. Now apart from the fact that I would likely disagree because it’s the marketing talk, the airlines that provide the service and are in that line of thinking and competition, there we can say ‘hey you can provide that.’ Because look around us, even the most premium airlines in the world that had Ku/Ka-band for sale for many years, they moved to the freemium model where they provide messaging for free and they try to hook you up so that you’re buying [the upgrade for] that extra bandwidth. But the majority of the people only want to do one thing because that’s very high in our Maslow pyramid. In the past, it was water and food. Nowadays, youngsters want to be connected. It’s in the Maslow pyramid [hierarchy of needs]. Now let’s just give that.

RGN: Connectivity is a human right in a modern world.

Heimerikx: It’s a human right to be connected, but it is not a necessarily a human right to go onto a website and watch CNN.com. I can download it or it’s already on the IFE system already, so why on earth would I go there? But I cannot communicate to my loved ones that I am on my way or to tell the neighbor ‘thank you for taking care of the cat’ or ‘hey I might have left the door open’ or whatever; that has become a really basic human need. But you don’t need a gigabit connection for that if one message is .7 kilobit, as an example obviously .. You have to copy/paste an entire book in order to get onto a decent amount of kilobits.

Just look in your phone. Look at your own last text. It’s ‘yes, sure, I’m on my way.’ One sentence and that’s easy on a 22 Kbps connection [as supported by Iridium Certus 100]. That’s more than enough space for that kind of service. So that service is for the carriers a very important element because they provide the exact same service as the ultra-premium carriers [i.e. free messaging].

AirFi founding partner and CEO Job Heimerikx at Global EXPORGN: On the widebody front, does it make sense to bring AirFi LEO on board even if you already carry a broadband IFC system?

Heimerikx: On the widebody front, we are now installing on an A330, we have an A340, we have a 757, we are doing a 777 at the moment. So, it actually doesn’t matter if we are talking about short-haul single-aisle, or long-haul, the need and the economics are exactly the same. And we didn’t see that coming.

RGN: If I’m an airline coming to your stand at Global EXPO, what do want to talk about?

Heimerikx: If you are an airline coming to our stand we update everybody on the latest innovations with regards to our improvements on the satellite receiver, on the antenna, because all the work we are doing, and all the initial installations and tests that we are doing, we are learning so fast and so much that our product just keeps iterating. And because we’re portable, we are also able to bring those learnings back to our existing customers. We are giving more input to the customers on what the LEO system is all about and where it’s evolving to. That’s pretty much the key. Obviously we are extremely happy with [the recent] Vietnam Airlines announcement, which is a ‘mall in the sky’ solution

RGN: And that could be the start of great things at that airline potentially?

Heimerikx: Oh yes. The support we have from that organization is absolutely stunning.