China Southern Selects Panasonic Avionics

  

April 14 2015

 

China Southern Airlines, Asia’s largest airline, is to be the launch customer for Panasonic Avionics’ eXO system, the industry’s most sophisticated overhead in-flight entertainment system.

 

The eXO system is designed with single aisle aircraft in mind and China Southern has chosen it for its new narrow-bodied fleet of Airbus A320s and A321s being delivered from early in 2016.

 

The new fleet being equipped will initially consist of 54 aircraft, with an option of a further 50 as the airline expands.

 

For the new China Southern fleet, the innovative eXO system will deliver overhead retract screens in Full 1080p High Definition (HD), clear digital audio, and in-seat high power USB charging for tablets and smart phones.

 

The superior Full HD resolution of eXO provides passengers with the same high quality video in the air that they enjoy every day in their home.

 

The offering includes availability of Near Audio On Demand, a provision unique to Panasonic, which lets passengers skip or repeat audio tracks with the press of a button on the capacitive touch passenger control units (PCU).

 

The new eXO system is both flexible yet powerful, capable of supporting not just Full HD overhead video and in-seat audio, but also wireless media to passenger PEDs and even seatback AVOD.  All of this functionality is supported by just one single 4MCU server unit.

 

Panasonic Avionics CEO Paul Margis said: “eXO provides a low-cost, lightweight and fully integrated system that gives forward-thinking airlines like China Southern the power to scale the system as necessary and improve the passenger experience with our ever-evolving in-flight offering.

 

“We are delighted that China Southern Airlines will be our launch customer in such a dynamic market as Asia.”