SITA/Airbus partnership OnAir plans to unveil another customer for its in-flight communication services within two weeks, an OnAir executive has revealed.
The company currently has 21 commercial airline customers for its mobile phone and Internet connectivity offerings and expects to have nearly 80 aircraft equipped with its mobile connectivity services by the end of 2009. AirAsia and British Airways should launch the service during the third quarter, while Oman Air will start offering the service by year-end.
Currently OnAir's GSM and GPRS solution is only flying on narrowbodies, but the company sealed Airbus A330 equipage deals with Hong Kong Airlines and Egyptair earlier this summer.
Passengers can use OnAir offerings, supported by Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband aeronautical service, for phone calls, text messages and e-mail using their own phones onboard. In addition, passengers can use their laptops to access the Geneva-based company's Internet solution through a wireless or wired connection as OnAir supplies both GSM/GPRS and wi-fi Internet.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
