Welcome to Episode 5 of the #PaxEx Podcast. Our guest is Joe Brancatelli, prominent business travel columnist and consultant, and creator of joesentme.com, which is billed as “the home page for business travelers”.

In this episode, we talk to Joe about his “I don’t care” list, which details his gripes about the airline industry and the passenger experience. He suggests that airline C-level management teams “live in a bubble”, and will make aircraft seats even tighter in the coming years.

Next we explore the viability of the current inflight connectivity model. At present, most airlines are charging for inflight connectivity, but passengers want Wi-Fi for free (and Norwegian’s CEO is calling for free Wi-Fi for all passengers). At the same time, most connectivity systems can’t support high-bandwidth functionality for all passengers. Will airlines continue to subsidize the service? Should they at least offer free-Wi-Fi to premium passengers, and bundle it into the product? Joe serves up his thoughts on the matter.

Last but not least, we discuss how major airlines and #PaxEx corporations are micro-managing their messaging (and creating their own branded media); and the lack of transparency in the aircraft interiors industry. We consider what this paradigm means for journalists, the traveling public and, ultimately, passenger safety.