The Cabin Coming Online

How Airlines Will Rethink the Digital Cabin Experience in 2026

Insights by: Fernando Guinea, President of Immfly

🎧 Audio edition: “The Cabin Coming Online”

Barcelona, Spain, January 26, 2026 – For years, the aircraft cabin has remained at the periphery of airlines’ digital strategy. Carriers have invested heavily in distribution systems, loyalty programmes, revenue management tools, and mobile apps. Yet the onboard environment has remained largely disconnected from those efforts.

This disconnect has had real, practical consequences. Many of an airline’s most valuable interactions with passengers happen in the air. Yet there has been limited visibility into what passengers watch, browse, or purchase between boarding and arrival. As a result, airlines are flying blind when it comes to experience and efficiency, relying on guesswork rather than data-backed decisions.

At the dawn of 2026, that is now beginning to change. Low-earth orbit (LEO) satellite networks are expanding, making in-flight connectivity more accessible and more affordable than legacy systems. But connectivity alone does not turn the cabin into a source of insights that maximizes revenue, passenger experience, and airline operations. That requires using connectivity to link your entire digital ecosystem: entertainment, retail, payments, and operational data inside the aircraft.

Leading onboard technology providers, such as Immfly, are enabling this shift by taking a more holistic approach and unifying these elements into a single digital cabin solution. In doing so, airlines can move the cabin from the margins of their digital strategy to where it increasingly belongs – at the centre.

In the sections that follow, I explore how these shifts are already changing day-to-day decisions in the cabin – and how they are reshaping service delivery, revenue generation, sustainability decisions, staffing pressures, and the overall passenger experience.

From Disconnected to Data-Driven: The Cabin Comes Online

When digital onboard entertainment, retail, and payment platforms are connected and supported by reliable in-flight connectivity, airlines gain a clearer view of what is happening at all times during the flight. Instead of relying primarily on historical patterns to decide which snacks to load on specific routes, for instance, they can use pre-orders and early purchases to anticipate demand – enabling more accurate loading, reducing waste, and resulting in fewer missed sales.

This service integration also changes how manual work is handled. Orders, payments, and inventory tracked automatically during the flight no longer have to be reconciled on the ground after landing. This can be done in real time, which improves accuracy, reduces errors, and enables on-the-fly decision-making. And we’re already seeing the positive impacts with some of our clients.

Those immediate insights also shape the passenger experience. In-flight entertainment can reflect actual viewing and engagement patterns rather than fixed assumptions and can be adjusted by route or region. The result is a cabin that feels more responsive, relevant, and personalised to each passenger’s needs.

Together, these capabilities turn the cabin into a live digital environment rather than a disconnected space.

Connectivity That Unlocks New Services and Retail Opportunities

As onboard connectivity improves, its value extends well beyond simply providing faster internet access for passengers. Reliable, lower-latency connections allow airlines to support services that are difficult or impossible in an offline environment.

One of the most immediate effects we’ve seen is on payments and transactions. Purchases authorised in real time rather than hours later reduce airlines’ exposure to declined cards and fraud while improving overall collection rates. Loyalty transactions can also take place in real time, making them more relevant to passengers and easier for airlines to manage.

For crew, connected tools provide clearer visibility into orders, enabling them to respond to issues as they arise. They also help teams better manage onboard inventory by aligning actual demand with provisioning, leading to more accurate route-by-route loading. The impact of this capability is significant. More accurate loading means less overstocking, less food and product waste and fewer chances of carrying unnecessary weight, an important consideration given fuel costs and sustainability demands.

As a result, onboard retail can become more flexible without adding complexity to crew operations, given the possibility of digital ordering. By removing the physical limits of trolley-based sales as Immfly did with Iberia Express, airlines can present broader catalogues and promote destination services, or partner offers that can be fulfilled before or after the flight. Assortments can also be seasonally adjusted, increasing the likelihood that what is carried will sell.

At the same time, greater connectivity requires more deliberate control over how passengers access onboard services – without structure, airlines risk losing visibility into passenger activity.

If connectivity isn’t thoughtfully structured, passengers may move straight to the open internet, limiting airlines’ visibility into engagement data and reducing their ability to shape service or retail on their own platforms.

We believe that how access is designed will play a key role in ensuring the cabin remains connected to the airline’s wider digital strategy rather than operating in isolation.

Real-Time Data and AI: Driving Smarter Decisions in the Cabin

The impact of artificial intelligence in the cabin is real – it enables airlines to make better decisions using information already generated in flight.

One of the earliest applications is more accurate demand forecasting. By analysing what passengers browse, watch, pre-order, and purchase, airlines can accurately predict catering and retail needs on specific routes and times. Over time, this improves provisioning, reduces waste, and optimises planning across the network.

AI also influences how choices are presented to passengers. Instead of static menus or fixed content lists, recommendations can reflect what makes sense for a particular passenger and route. On a short evening route with a high proportion of business travellers, the system may surface quick meal options, news or documentary content, and Wi-Fi access early in the journey. By contrast, on a longer leisure route, it may prioritise family content, destination-related films, or bundled food and retail offers. These recommendations are informed by behaviour observed on similar flights rather than assumptions made long in advance.

Retail benefits in the same way. Highlighting items that tend to perform well on a specific route or at a particular time of day simplifies the experience for both passengers and crew, while improving conversion for the airline. Rather than presenting more choices, AI helps present the right choice at the right moment.

Other applications are beginning to take shape as well. Conversational interfaces reduce the need to navigate complex menus, allowing passengers and crew to interact with onboard systems through simple prompts. Instant translation tools help remove language barriers in a global cabin, improving clarity and comfort for everyone on board.

Our view is that ultimately, AI won’t replace human service or airline judgment; it will augment the decisions that shape the cabin – making planning more accurate, interactions more relevant, and operations more efficient.

Connected Operations: Transforming the Crew Experience

Changes in the cabin also affect the people at the heart of the operation. Today, cabin crew are increasingly working under tighter schedules, staffing pressure, and faster turnarounds. Tasks such as inventory checks, payment reconciliation, and post-flight reporting still take time, often long after passengers have left the aircraft.

With cabins coming online, that burden can finally be reduced. Information is recorded as transactions occur rather than reconstructed later, reducing errors and removing a layer of work that has traditionally remained outside a crew’s core role. The result? Less effort is spent on administrative tasks, and more on delivering consistent, attentive service during the flight. Crews can work more efficiently and respond more confidently to passenger needs.

In an industry facing ongoing labour stress, these changes matter. Digital cabins allow airlines to introduce new services and explore new revenue opportunities without placing additional strain on crew, supporting more sustainable operations and a better experience for crew and passengers.

A Global Shift With Regional Variations

While the underlying technology trends are global, adoption will vary by region. In the Asia-Pacific region, high mobile usage has created strong expectations for ordering, paying, and interacting on personal devices throughout the journey. In North America, passengers place particular emphasis on connectivity performance and reliability, making bandwidth, stability, and coverage key differentiators.

European carriers face additional pressure from sustainability reporting requirements, making waste reduction, fuel efficiency, and operational optimisation clear priorities. In Latin America, many airlines can adopt digital-first models without the constraints of legacy onboard systems, allowing them to move quickly toward fully connected cabins.

Despite these differences, airlines across regions are converging in the same direction: cabins that are more connected, more data-driven and more closely integrated with their wider operations.

Looking Ahead: Progress Through Simplification

The airline industry is operating under structural pressures that the connected cabin is increasingly expected to address. High passenger volumes make efficiency at scale essential. Ancillary revenue plays a growing role in offsetting costs, cashless purchasing is now standard, and sustainability requirements, particularly in Europe, are influencing what airlines carry, sell, and serve onboard.

In this environment, progress comes through simplification. Smart, integrated digital cabin platforms bring together wireless entertainment, onboard retail, payments, connectivity, and operational data in a single system designed specifically for airline operations.

Rather than treating onboard services as separate tools, these platforms treat them as a single, connected workflow, allowing onboard activity to inform decisions while the aircraft is still in the air. This all-in-one approach is particularly relevant for low-cost and hybrid carriers who have, in the past, been reluctant to invest in connectivity due to the cost, weight, and complexity of traditional installations.

As these tools evolve, the ability to combine passenger engagement data with operational forecasting – including insights into what passengers watch, browse, and buy – becomes increasingly valuable. Digital cabin platforms, such as those developed by Immfly, demonstrate how these capabilities can be delivered in a unified, operationally efficient way.

As we look ahead and well beyond this year, the cabin will play a central role in how airlines think about efficiency, service, and revenue performance. Airlines that adopt integrated digital cabin solutions will not only improve the passenger experience but will also gain the operational visibility needed to run leaner, more responsive, and more sustainable operations at scale.

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How will your airline shape the next phase of the connected cabin?

Immfly’s all-in-one connectivity, retail, entertainment, and data ecosystem is already delivering these capabilities with airlines worldwide. Visit our Experience Center or contact our global team of aviation experts to explore how these solutions can advance your airline’s digital transformation.