Reimagining Inflight Entertainment as a strategic customer channel

Air New Zealand has a global reputation for innovation and for delivering world-class customer experiences. Inflight Entertainment (IFE) plays a critical role in shaping long-haul journeys, yet it operates within complex technical, operational, and regulatory constraints.

Air New Zealand partnered with Purple Shirt across two generations of IFE, working alongside Panasonic Avionics to design and deliver an experience used by an estimated 17 million passengers every year. Embedded within their IFE team and working closely with global technical partners, Purple Shirt supported Air New Zealand across strategy, research, design and delivery.

Inflight Entertainment had traditionally been viewed as a content platform; a way to watch movies and TV shows at 35,000 feet.

Air New Zealand saw the opportunity to elevate IFE into something more strategic:

• A differentiated brand touchpoint
• A personalised passenger experience
• A potential revenue channel
• A system that better supported cabin crew operations

The challenge was to create a next-generation IFE experience that balanced passenger delight, operational efficiency, and technical feasibility, all within the constraints of aircraft hardware and offline environments.

Embedded Partnership

Purple Shirt operated as UX research and design leads within Air New Zealand’s IFE team. We worked collaboratively across business units to ensure the platform met diverse stakeholder needs while maintaining a cohesive experience vision.

We travelled to California to work directly with Panasonic Avionics, aligning on technical feasibility, influencing system capabilities, and building strong working relationships across organisations.

Research-Led Design

We created purpose-built, immersive environments in which to test prototypes with staff and customers, as well as spending significant time on flights observing passenger and crew interactions. This deep insight ensured that every design decision was grounded in passenger behaviour and cabin crew realities, not assumptions. We also shared knowledge gained from our research to influence Panasonic Avionics to improve its Crew Management Interface product.

Holistic Experience Thinking

Rather than treating IFE as an isolated digital product, we approached it as part of a broader inflight ecosystem, balancing:

• Passenger personalisation
• Hardware constraints
• Offline environments
• Operational workflows
• Brand expression

This systems-level thinking allowed us to design for both customer delight and operational performance.

Across two generations of IFE, the collaboration delivered significant innovation and industry recognition.

Inflight World Firsts

• World-leading personalisation that did not require connectivity
• Crew call intervention functionality
• Video scrubbing controls

International Recognition

• Air Passenger Experience (APEX) Awards:
• Best Inflight Innovation
• Best Personalisation Innovation

Operational Impact

• Improved understanding of IFE’s impact on cabin crew workflows
• Design improvements to the Crew Management Interface
• A more integrated view of IFE within the inflight operating model

Strategic Shift

The perception of IFE shifted from being viewed solely as “entertainment” to being recognised as a strategic brand channel and potential source of revenue.