February 27, 2006 – THE new Thales regional headquarters formally opened in Singapore during last week’s Asian Aerospace show will house facilities to support the IFE equipment now entering service with growing numbers of airlines in Asia-Pacific.

Recent new takers for Thales’ TopSeries system in the region include hugely ambitious Indian low-cost carrier Kingfisher, Air India, Air China, Bangkok Airways, Japan Airlines and Royal Brunei.

Thales’ new Singapore premises, covering 6,000 sq m and housing 150 staff, opened for business last month and were formally inaugurated on February 23, three days into the show. The facility is designed to support marketing and sales, customer care, repairs and maintenance for the whole range of Thales products in service in the region. On the IFE side, it hosts a programme office and a maintenance and repair station.

Representatives of Kingfisher Airlines can be expected to be regular visitors. The Indian carrier selected the TopFlight i-3000 distributed system for the 20-aircraft order of ATR72-500 turboprops it announced last November.

The ATRs will be used to fly from Indian secondary cities to the country’s main hubs at Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Bangalore, and to feed Kingfisher’s current main fleet of seven Airbus A320s. TopFlight is fitted to these aircraft and will also be acquired for the 30 new A320s that the carrier has on order. The system delivers five video channels and 10 audio to in-seat screens throughout the A320.

Air India has ordered TopSeries i-4000 for retrofit on six Boeing 747s. There will be 10.4in touchscreen displays in first and business classes and 8.4in in economy. Every seat will have laptop power and noise cancellation. Thales’ TopEffects media services group will provide content support.

Air China has selected TopSeries for 20 Airbus A330-200s, 14 to operate on international routes, the rest within China. The international aircraft will have i-4000 throughout. The domestic aircraft will have i-4000 in business class and i-2000 overhead video and distributed audio in economy. All the installations will be line fits.

On the international aircraft business travellers will have 10.4in displays, with 8.4in in economy. Business travellers will also have noise cancellation and laptop power. The overall IFE fit also includes an external-view camera and Rockwell Collins’ Airshow 420 moving-map. First revenue service is set for May, with all installations to be completed by October 2008.