Virgin America improves inflight entertainment system

by Grant Martin on

Part of the reason that Virgin America keeps getting voted the best domestic carrier is because of their Inflight Entertainment (IFE). Called RED, the seatback system lets passengers browse live television, catch up pre-recorded shows, watch movies and participate in a whole host of other fancy activities from ordering food to browsing around a real-time Google map.


To stay on top of the industry though, the airline needs to keep adapting their system, and they’re starting the process this week with the announcement of the integration of the Lufthansa Systems’ BoardConnect platform into their fleet.
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Basically, the BoardConnect platform is a completely new engine on top of which the RED system is going to live, meaning that the IFE will look similar moving forward but will be completely overhauled under the hood. The technology leverages a wireless internet network to maintain and update its data, which means that content will now be updated faster and at lower cost. In turn, this translates to a better experience for the passengers on board, which is always great to hear about.

Hopefully it also means that we can get our boys from Travel Talk churning within the RED channels once more.

BoardConnect technology has already been unrolled on the airplane #nerdbird. More updates are expected on later aircraft.

Virgin America names new plane after Twitter hashtag

by Libby Zay on

Virgin America increased its fleet to 39 planes last week, and the social media savvy company has decided to brand the newest plane after a Twitter hashtag: #nerdbird.

“For all our social media fans and followers, this bird’s for you!” announced the airline on their Facebook page. After three days in the air, the social media buzz is still soaring: travelers continue to tweet about the plane upon boarding and many are still announcing their hopes to take to the skies in the plane using the hashtag.

Virgin America tells Mashable that “nerdbird” is what the company’s regulars call flights between San Francisco and Boston, a commute often traveled by tech industry guests that the plane will fly. Other Virgin America plane names include Jefferson Airplane, the first plane christened in the fleet, and Air Colbert, named after comedian Stephen Colbert.

[Photo courtesy Virgin America]