July 28, 2007 – LONDON-based turnkey IFE service provider Mezzo has acquired three new customers, TUI Group charter carriers Arkefly of the Netherlands, Jetairfly (Belgium) and Thomsonfly (UK).

The new deals bring to seven Mezzo’s customer tally, which also includes British low-cost carriers Flyglobespan and Jet2.com, charter operator XL Airways and transatlantic premium-only specialist Silverjet.

Arkefly will be the first of the TUI Group carriers to offer the Mezzo service, which is based on eVU handhelds from e.Digital of California. The Amsterdam-based airline will deploy the units on all of its aircraft, as will Jetairfly, while Thomsonfly will equip aircraft operating on selected long-haul routes. The Arkefly aircraft will carry a hundred units each. The three carriers all operate Boeing 767s and will offer the service free of charge to business passengers and on a rental basis in economy.

“We selected Mezzo over embedded or other portable vendors primarily because of the attractiveness of its fully outsourced option,” says Arkefly sales and planning manager Paul Schmitt. “The Mezzo service yields a better return on investment than bringing the management of IFE in-house.”