Recent developments suggest that European airline interest in onboard connectivity for short-haul aircraft has reached a tipping point, though how and when this will translate into action remains to be seen.
Wi-fi connectivity has become so standard on board US carrier domestic flights that, mirroring what has happened on the ground, expectations are now about not just availability but speed of connectivity.
This was highlighted in February when American Airlines filed a lawsuit against the provider of wi-fi services for a portion of its fleet – around 200 of its older Boeing 737-800s, MD-80s and 757-200s are covered by a 2012 contract with Gogo – arguing that the system on these aircraft is no longer competitive.
American subsequently dropped the lawsuit and said it would consider Gogo's proposal for an improved 2ku in-flight wi-fi service. Around 10% of Gogo's 11,000 connectivity-solution-equipped aircraft now feature its broadband 2ku solution.
If onboard connectivity is becoming the norm on North American domestic flights, and is increasingly available on widebodies in Europe, it is still far from commonplace on short flights within Europe.
"The tipping point was probably two years ago on long-range," says Panasonic's vice-president of global communications services David Bruner. "You still have lots of people to make decisions, but for every carrier, it is now more in their thought process." That is underlined by a recent wave of connectivity announcements covering European long-haul fleets, latterly including Air France's plan to start rolling out wi-fi on its long-haul fleet from 2017 and Air Europa's move to deploy Panasonic's connectivity solution on its Airbus A330s and Boeing 787s.
"For narrowbodies [in Europe] I think we are at the tipping point," adds Bruner. "But things are more fuzzy about business models."
The pioneer in the European short-haul market has been, and today remains, low-cost carrier Norwegian. The airline debuted its service, which uses Row 44's connectivity solution, just over five years ago and offers the service free on board.
Over the last five years, it says, more than 19 million passenger used the service; 18,000 passengers access its onboard wi-fi per day. The biggest demand is on Spanish routes. Flights to Malaga, Barcelona, Alicante and Madrid – and Tromso – have most wi-fi users. A third of passengers use a social media channel within 5min.
Norwegian further expanded the offering in November by launching a 12-month trial to cover live television. It is providing access to news from Bloomberg TV and Norwegian channel TV 2 on mobile devices under an agreement with Global Eagle Entertainment. The service is free.
Several airlines in Europe have made tentative moves in the short-haul network. Air Berlin, Icelandair, SAS and, until its collapse, Transaero have all offered in-flight connectivity on narrowbodies.
Interest continues to grow. Spanish low-cost carrier Vueling a year ago unveiled plans to launch onboard connectivity. It teamed with Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica to provide onboard connectivity, working with Live TV on the service over the Eutelsat Ka-band satellite network. But having done the technical work to support its launch, the carrier is yet to launch the service. "We're still waiting for all the civil aviation authorisations to launch it, but we’re expecting to announce it soon," says Vueling.
Air France, alongside its widebodies connectivity plan, has teamed with mobile operator Orange to trial wi-fi on board a pair of Airbus A320s. It launched the trial earlier this year.
Alitalia, which is already equipping Panasonic's wi-fi service on its long-haul fleet, in autumn 2015 disclosed plans to roll out connectivity across its whole fleet. Air Berlin, another European equity-alliance partner to Etihad, already has a pair of A320s equipped with the Panasonic connectivity service.
European budget carrier giant Ryanair, which had a brief dalliance with OnAir's onboard mobile phone service in 2009, continues to ponder connectivity options. "We're currently looking at a near-fi product, where customers would log on to a near-fi network on board and access content such as in-flight movies or a digital in-flight magazine," the carrier says. "We hope to trial it on board soon."
This sums up the variety of approaches – both in technology solution and business model – being followed by Europe's carriers. "Europe is one of the markets with the messiest battlegrounds," says Bruner. "We'll see what happens, but it's a very fragmented market. I'm sure we'll go through some sort of shakeout. Right now, it's a bit of a frenzy in the marketplace."
One of the latest developments has come from Inmarsat and its planned European Aviation Network, which as the name suggests is focused on the short-haul European sector. Inmarsat has teamed with Deutsche Telekom for the initiative, which was unveiled in autumn 2015 and combines satellite connectivity with a ground-based mobile phone network.
Deutsche Telecom in a recent update says that under the roll-out plan for the European flight network, the first LTE stations are scheduled for the end of the year in southern England. Six test flights are planned, the first of which will take place this year. This will be followed next spring with the first commercial pilot for the network, also in England. Coverage over Germany and western Europe's other most highly populated areas is scheduled for mid-2017.
Lufthansa has agreed to take part in a flight trial programme of the new European Aviation Network next year, but before then will this summer begin offering satellite broadband based service on European flights using Inmarsat technology.
"This underlines once again that we are pioneers when it comes to digital service on board," said group chief Carsten Spohr in announcing the move last year. The German carrier has arguably been the European most committed to onboard connectivity, dating back from pioneering the Connexion by Boeing solution a decade ago, and its subsequent agreement on long-haul connectivity with Panasonic.
IAG carrier British Airways in the summer of 2014 said it was in talks with Inmarsat over using its satellite network for broadband services, initially on UK domestic routes.
"Across the board with Global Express and, in particular, the new solution we've got for Europe, I think the timing is perfect. We are coming at a time when all airlines in Europe are interested in connectivity," says Inmarsat vice-president of aviation David Coiley.
He notes this is coming at the same time that connectivity and entertainment are converging through the use of mobile devices. "It is as much the convergence in this parallel track [driving demand]. We are all consuming more content on the move."
Coiley adds: "The when-to-do-it has gone out of the equation. It's a question of how to do it – whether it's connectivity, content and IFE, what the retail model is. Some of the modelling may be different – it maybe about ancillary revenues, operational improvements or service enhancement, but they all play into the same end result.
"I think there is demand. The model many need to evolve."
Flexibility is one of the major requirements, Inmarsat is hearing. "They might be trying to find a way to initially package and price the service – but we do expect over a long-term project to repackage and find new ways of working, potentially with other commercial partners. So the one key element is flexibility."
Source: Cirium Dashboard
