January 25, 2005 - THIS year’s Inflight Passenger Entertainment and Communications (IPEC) conference and its new companion, the Low Fare and Regional Aviation (LARA) Summit, are well set to deliver on their promise to bring IFE/communications suppliers face-to-face with present and future customers in the low-fare, regional and leisure sectors.

The tandem event is only one of its kind in the world to recognise last year’s emergence of IFE as a differentiator in markets outside the full-service sector. Leading the IPEC programme are the head of IFE for Virgin America, which is expected to launch this year with an outstanding combination of entertainment and cabin amenities; the executive responsible for the world’s first installation of embedded IFE in regional jets; and the inventor of the handheld system that is bringing IFE to Ryanair, Alaska Airlines, Jetsgo of Canada and UK leisure carrier Monarch.

The IPEC delegate list to date includes representatives of British low-fare carrier Flybe and leisure operator Britannia Airways, plus Virgin Atlantic, Kuwait Airways and Tunisair.

The parallel LARA programme features several top names. Flybe managing director Jim French and Bob Rapp, chief information officer at Frontier Airlines, will represent the low-fare world. Regional carriers on the podium will include IFE pioneer Air Canada Jazz (CEO Joe Randell), Pinnacle Airlines of the USA (CEO Phil Trenary), Eastern Airways of the UK (CEO Richard Lake), Germanwings (deputy MD Dr Andreas Bierwirth), Air Dolomiti of Italy (CEO Michael Kraus) and India’s Air Deccan (managing director Capt G R Gopinath).

When delegates aren’t in the conference halls they will have access to an exhibition area containing, among others, connectivity providers ARINC, SITA and Inmarsat; APS-Wencor, leaders of the booming handheld IFE market with their digEplayer; Inflight Canada, creator of the radical iCACHE underfloor installation solution; and Lufthansa Systems, which played a key role in implementing the world’s first satellite broadband service.