Specialist inflight retailing software and hardware provider Novo Ivc has reported good continuing progress with Air Berlin and the Tourvest Duty Free concessionaire company.

The company says that last November Air Berlin placed an order for 335 TouchPC Falcons, each equipped with an integral TouchPod to facilitate credit card transaction and printing onboard.
It adds that the large colour touch screen has subsequently allowed Novo to optimise the SkyPOS retail software, allowing Air Berlin cabin crew to use large on-screen buttons and simplistic 'menu driven' applications, enabling retail transactions to be carried out swiftly and efficiently.
This new technology is due to go live now and Novo says that the new Falcons will be used by over 2,500 cabin crew and the on-board data capture system will interface with the Enterprise version of the ?Pro Logistica? Back Office system.
This November 2006 order represents the third consecutive investment that Air Berlin has made in Novo onboard retail systems. Cannes Frontier award winners Tourvest Duty Free also continues to back Novo Ivc?s leading inflight technology. Novo reports that it has also been able to secure repeat business as the favoured provider for Tourvest Duty Free's in-light mobile point of sale technology.
In a statement, Novo said: ‘The Novo Ivc/Tourvest partnership commenced in 1999 with the introduction of Novo?s first generation product the ?Eagle? on board Kenyan Airways. Today, on the back of the successful partnership with Novo Ivc, Tourvest Duty Free division has chosen to implement the fourth generation Touch PC Falcon across its entire operation.
‘With some 580 devices expected to be rolled out across 63,000 trolleys during 2007, Virgin Atlantic, South African Airways, Air Namibia and Air Nigeria will rely on Novo?s cutting edge Falcon and the Tourvest back-of-house system to provide a complete retail solution.’
Tourvest Duty Free Ceo Ian Hay said: ?Upon taking the decision to automate our onboard operations globally so that we could offer maximum efficiency to our clients, we researched our potential suppliers extensively and embarked on a tender process which was exceptionally thorough in order to make sure that our detailed requirements were met. At the end of this process we concluded that Novo Ivc were best equipped in terms of technology, attitude and expertise to partner us moving forward.?