Supply chain bottlenecks affected companies and industries across the globe during the Covid pandemic. But inflight entertainment and connectivity giant Panasonic Avionics confirms to Runway Girl Network it has not grappled with any major issues in quite some time — an important consideration as airlines look to bring next-generation IFEC systems to their aircraft.
“We’ve been good for a while,” Panasonic Avionics vice president of product & portfolio management Andrew Masson told RGN on 3 December at Keflavík Airport (KEF), where Icelandair celebrated the arrival of its first Airbus aircraft, an A321LR fitted from nose to tail with Panasonic Avionics’ new 4K OLED-based Astrova IFE system.
“During the midst of Covid, all the electronics providers struggled. You know the semiconductor business was hit very, very hard. Cars were being delivered without microprocessors built in that controlled certain modules and then had to go back and have them retrofitted in. And even we at Panasonic struggled in this time,” said Masson.
A leading consumer electronics company, Panasonic Holdings Corporation ended up pooling its demand together, including the automotive division, the consumer division and the Irvine, California-based avionics business and, explained Masson: “At that point we became the second biggest consumer of electrical components on the planet, and at that point we could get anything we wanted.
“We were very good in terms of our IFE from then.”
“And now I don’t think we have any major supply chain issues at all,” the Panasonic Avionics executive continued when asked by RGN if the firm is witnessing any of the IFE parts shortages highlighted by Recaro Aircraft Seating chief executive officer Dr. Mark Hiller late last year.
“There have been a couple of suppliers that we had to design around or introduce something else in there,” noted Masson, “which I don’t really like doing because we want people to do well and we have a very loyal and good supply chain.
“But, there’s a couple of people that couldn’t make it and we had to introduce over a new platform or vertically integrate.”
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- Panasonic flight tests Sidewinder and Eutelsat OneWeb LEO
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- Recaro Aircraft Seating CEO flags continued shortage in IFE parts
Featured image of Panasonic Avionics’ new Astrova IFE system aboard Icelandair’s A321LR credited to Icelandair
