July 9, 2008 – VIRGIN America’s Charles Ogilvie is to return to IFE manufacturer Panasonic after four years in which he helped the San Francisco-based low-fare carrier both to set new standards in onboard entertainment and to build significant ancillary revenues from onboard sales.

A fluent Mandarin-speaker, Ogilvie is going to Shanghai to head work related to Panasonic’s IFE and connectivity systems in China.

In his time as director of IFE and partnerships with Virgin America Ogilvie spearheaded development of the carrier’s “Red” IFE package, based on Panasonic’s eFx narrowbody hardware and software from US company CoKinetic. New York State-based CoKinetic is responsible for Airplay, a software package designed to support exceptionally fast and flexible user interfaces in IFE systems and other applications such as satellite and cable television. Among other things, Airplay supports multiple simultaneous on-screen windows.

Airplay also facilitates onboard transactions, and at last month’s IFEC Summit in Beijing Ogilvie gave delegates an inkling of what this could mean to carriers looking with mounting desperation for ways to earn more from their passengers.

Indicating that Virgin America is now earning thousands of dollars a day from onboard sales of food and other offerings, he said: “The essence of our Red system is that it’s custom-designed software running on Panasonic hardware. It’s a response to the problems I saw in the cabins of other US airlines a few years ago.”

Food and drink sales facilitated by Red are the foundation of the airline’s ancillary revenue effort, Ogilvie said. “We charge for everything except water and soda, so we make money from food and drink, and also from things like premium IFE content.”

He pointed to another advantage of the Red-supported food ordering system, which requires payment by credit or debit card. “It has allowed us to reduce the standard cabin crew on our A320-family aircraft from four to three. And because the flight attendants have far less sales administration to do, they can deplane more quickly at the end of the flight and move on to pick up another shift. Their on-duty time is used much more efficiently.”

Commenting on the prospects for IFE suppliers in China, he said: “There’s no doubt that Chinese passengers are now looking for a sensational branded travel experience. They want something that’s atypical – it’s a huge opportunity for suppliers.”

As well as Red, Ogilvie’s legacy at Virgin America will include the fleetwide adoption of Aircell’s AMBN/Gogo terrestrial passenger broadband service. He confirmed in Beijing that the carrier expected to start introducing the service before the end of the year.