The Big Three Pioneers Of Long-Haul In-Flight WiFi Are...
It feels like just yesterday that Virgin America and AirTran introduced fleet wide in-flight WiFi, and already the long-haul carriers are buzzing with the desire to bring connectivity to international routes. They are so feeling the ants in the pants, that already a "Big Three" has emerged—the pioneers for the next two years in this area: Lufthansa as they resurrect their "FlyNet" with Panasonic, Virgin Atlantic as they ponder how best to go about this with their 2011 aircraft deliveries, and now Emirates.
Emirates is already the king of long-haul connectivity, since they're pioneering the use of cell phones in-flight (60 aircraft are already outfitted with the AeroMobile technology) and you can currently check your email and SMS through a seat-back dial-up connection. And now, naturally, they turn to bringing the whole internet aboard through a satellite-based service called Ku-Band. Nothing's been decided yet, but Emirates did say that they aren't happy with the Connexion by Boeing idea, which Lufthansa had in the past.
All eyes are on A380s and the airlines that have them already or have them on order, as FlightGlobal investigates:
At present, Emirates operates five A380s, and has orders for a further 53. At some point in the delivery schedule, the ultra-large widebodies will come line-fit with Inmarsat's higher-bandwidth SwiftBroadband (SBB) service.
'SBB is going to be standard on the A380 eventually once they have got some of the avionics equipment, the new generation updated.'
The Big Three all have or will have A380s, and thus far they are most active in seeking a solution to retrofit their aircraft for connectivity, so rest assured that long-haul in-flight WiFi is totally around the corner. We're going to guess it'll be 2011 though before we can surf Craigslist from over the Arctic Circle.
Related Stories:
· Emirates Looks Again at Ku-Band As Overseas Broadband Heats Up [FlightGlobal]
· Will 2011 Be The Year of Long-Haul In-Flight WiFi? Virgin Atlantic Says 'Yes!' [Jaunted]
· In-Flight WiFi coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: Shortbread1015DT]
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