CHINA. Irish tech company and inflight retail specialist Bonflite has partnered with Qingdao Airlines and TDT Link in creating China’s first Ka-band high-throughput broadband satellite aircraft fleet and enabling a new concept of duty free shopping.
Describing the initiative as a “milestone launch”, Bonflite said that passengers traveling with Qingdao Airlines can now enjoy Bonflite’s duty free shopping service via their mobile phones onboard the aircraft. Their purchases can then be delivered straight to the passenger’s home or hotel in Mainland China.
Qingdao Airlines is a Chinese carrier based at Liuting International Airport in Qingdao. The carriers serves over 50 destinations in eight countries.
About Bonflite
Bonflite, based in Ireland and founded by Hongbo Sun, John Yashi Li and Paschal Nee, offers a duty free ecommerce platform that allows air travellers to purchase and collect duty free items at any point across their travel itinerary – from pre-journey to pre-flight, in-flight, post-flight or in destination.
The solution is designed to combine the customer reach and distribution channel of the airline with the airport duty free retailer’s range of inventory.
The young company says that it is “deeply obsessed” with addressing the outdated model of duty free shopping. It aims to work with airlines and airport retailers to grow ancillary revenues.“Since inception, our focus has always been to create more value, bring further prosperity and make a long-lasting positive impact through each and every single interaction with our stakeholders in the industry,” it noted in a social media post.
Bonflite was also invited to join the Techstars Hub71 Accelerator 2020, a global platform for investment and innovation.
