Today, SkyLights announces the launch of Skykids, its immersive VR entertainment created especially to entertain children aged 6 to 12 on long-haul flights.
The service, which lets children watch curated 2D, 3D and forward-facing 360° films in their own wearable cinema, was deployed fleet-wide on July 1st with SkyLights’ long-standing client XL Airways. Having seen significant success since day one, SkyLights will continue the service beyond its initial holiday season scheduling.
“Skykids has got off to a fantastic start. Demand has outstripped our predictions, with the service oversubscribed on just about every flight. We owe this initial success to the very constructive relationships we have with XL Airways and 20th Century Fox.,” said Laurence Fornari, SkyLights’ Head of Sales and Marketing.
According to a study commissioned by Emirates in 2017, children under 12 get bored 50 minutes into long-haul flights. With entertaining children identified as parents’ biggest concern when flying, and unruly kids voted the second most annoying type of passenger in Expedia’s 2017 passenger study, Skylights saw an opportunity to upgrade the customer experience of all passengers onboard. As a result, Skykids was developed, combining a fun and engaging VR headset design with a premium catalog curated especially for kids in partnership with 20th Century Fox.
“As a leisure airline, families are our priority. Being able to provide them with a memorable experience is extremely beneficial. It creates an emotional link to the brand and makes getting there an actual part of the perfect vacation our passengers have been waiting for.”, said Laurent Magnin, XL Airways’ CEO.
SkyKids Bravo Theatre. Image: SkyLights
Having been named ‘Best Leisure Airline in France’ in Skytrax 2018 World Airline Awards, XL Airways involvement in the Skykids project highlights its innovative approach to providing a quality passenger experience.
“Customer feedback has been nothing but positive since we introduced Skykids.”, said Lucie Deynoux, XL Airways’ Product Marketing Manager. “As the device is the same as regular Skylights headsets, there was no need to retrain our cabin crew, which made for a smooth test which we look forward to expanding. I am convinced that the design is an important part of the success of the service. It makes passengers curious and drives sales. This is where we can say that Skykids has every reason to succeed. The device is right, the design is on point and the content is relevant to the audience”.
Going forward, SkyLights will offer airlines the new service alongside its flagship Allosky business class amenity solution. With this addition, the company aims to consolidate its position as the leading provider of VR entertainment for airlines.
SkyLights is an American-French company that leverages Cinematic VR as premium passenger entertainment. It has a signature immersive-IFE solution that transports passengers to their own, private, in-flight movie theater where they can enjoy 3D, 2D and VR content on a wide-angle cinema screen. On average, passengers use the device for 4 hours with a 90% recommendation rate.
Intended for airline customer experience managers, the end-to-end solution (content, hardware, software & operations-setup) is tailored to upgrade and differentiate the business class experience.
The company was founded in February 2015 and has offices in San Francisco, Paris and Toulouse.
