August 27, 2007 – HANDHELD IFE from Californian-based IMS is one of the weapons being deployed by American Airlines as it confronts premium-only carriers Eos and MAXjet in a battle for the growing business-class market at London’s Stansted Airport.

American has announced that it will introduce its new Boeing 767 business class (Inflight Online, April 3, 2006) on New York JFK-Stansted on October 29. The move is a response to a perceived shift of London’s financial workplaces eastwards into Docklands, which has prompted executives to find homes within the Stansted catchment area in the Thames estuary region and Essex.

The route will be operated with a single 767-300ER configured for 30 business-class passengers seated 2+2+2 and 191 economy (2+3+2). A single daily non-stop flight will depart Stansted at 10.15am, arriving at JFK at 1.15pm. A second daily service will be introduced next April.

The new business class has been installed in the carrier’s 58-aircraft fleet of 767-300s. Along with the IMS handhelds, it features a Recaro lie-flat seat with three-position memory setting, a novel double table, advanced lighting and roomier overhead bins. It is now being launched on all of American’s international Boeing 767 routes, with fleet completion due for the end of the year.

IMS was contracted last year to supply American with a total of 2,800 handhelds to support a standard stock of 48 per aircraft. The device features a 10.6in screen, the largest to be offered to date in handheld IFE, and an exceptionally large 80Gb hard drive. It gives passengers access to a selection of four early-window films, four late-window, two classics and two shorts, and nearly ten hours of television content, including sitcoms, dramas and content from Discovery Networks. It also carries a selection of games, music videos and 100 audio CDs, and provides daily Reuters news in video and text formats.

The touchscreen device draws power from a docking station in the seatback and is normally viewed in that location. But it can also be removed and placed where the passenger chooses. “They can leave the device in the seatback for convenient hands-free viewing or move it to the tray table or even the lie-flat bed,” says Mary McKee, American’s managing director of inflight products.

The 767s are also being equipped with IMS’ Terminal Data Loader (TDL), which can accept new digital content either wirelessly or from removable media such as DVD, CD, USB 2.0 memory stick or AIT tape.

American’s competitors at Stansted both include handheld IFE in their service offering. Eos is also an IMS customer, while MAXjet is supplied by digEcor.