After a period when carriers and air travellers had far more to worry about than the development of in-flight Internet connectivity, interest is reawakening
A phrase that could have been invented specifically for the airline industry is "watch this space". And it is especially appropriate to the ongoing quest to equip passenger aircraft with in-flight e-mail and Internet connectivity.
The terrorist attacks, depressed world economy, Middle East conflict and then SARS all helped to derail some Internet connectivity projects. But airlines are again beginning to assess the options to provide those links for their passengers.
Officials of Connexion by Boeing and Tenzing Communications, the two sector's major players, are seeing renewed interest in their product offerings from carriers around the world, and both are optimistic about signing up new customers this year.
A number of airlines have signed up already. This includes two US carriers - United and Continental Airlines - which have become indirect Tenzing customers by agreeing to use already installed onboard telephones - a Verizon Airfone system - as a platform for offering e-mail to passengers on domestic flights. Airfone uses Tenzing as its JetConnect e-mail service provider.
Verizon Airfone started installing its basic JetConnect service on Continental aircraft in domestic service in November, allowing passengers to plug laptops into a jack on the Airfone handset to access its system. For $5.99, travellers could send instant messages, one-way text messages, play online games and access news, weather, city guides and airline information on JetConnect's website.
Continental's entire narrowbody fleet of 306 aircraft - primarily Boeing 737s and 757s - were equipped by April. Now it is upgrading the fleet to JetConnect with full e-mail service. That is expected to cost travellers $15.98, plus 10¢ per kilobyte of data over 2 KB. Officials say most e-mails are under that level. Continental expects its 757 fleet to be e-mail ready before the end of July and the rest of the fleet to be online by autumn.
United is also equipping its fleet of 400-plus domestic service aircraft with JetConnect with e-mail. It offered the standard JetConnect service beginning in December on 18 Boeing 767 aircraft, and now expects to have its entire domestic fleet equipped with e-mail capability by the end of the year.
There is no cost to the carrier; Verizon installs the JetConnect system in several hours during an aircraft's routine maintenance, and the upgraded version allowing e-mail takes less than 15 minutes, requiring just a swap of a board and file server. The airline, Verizon and Tenzing share in the revenues.
Unlike the real-time, satellite-based Connexion by Boeing, Verizon uses an air-to-ground network, with 138 owned ground stations in continental USA. As such, the system - an intranet on a file server - is cached every 15 minutes so that the system is refreshed, with e-mails sent and received and the web content updated.
Evolutionary process
Verizon and Tenzing are talking actively with other US carriers. Airfone service currently is installed in about two-thirds of US-based commercial passenger aircraft. Verizon Airfone president Bill Pallone says JetConnect with e-mail is part of an evolutionary process. "The next step in the Airfone technology vision is to provide passengers with the ability to use their own wireless devices such as laptops, PDAs and cell phones."
Because it is a US-based, air-to-ground system, JetConnect is not available internationally - the area where Connexion by Boeing has made major inroads. Connexion delivers broadband connectivity through satellites and receiving stations that relay data between aircraft with the necessary equipment and the global information network.
Connexion's biggest customer so far is Lufthansa, which has contracted to equip 78 long-haul aircraft with Boeing's broadband system. Lufthansa's decision followed what Burkard Wigger, general manager of Lufthansa's Project FlyNet, calls the "overwhelming success" of a three-month trial of the system early this year on its Frankfurt-Washington route.
An average of 50-80 travellers used the system on each flight, spending an average of close to three hours sending and receiving e-mails and surfing the Internet. Connexion was also used by some corporate customers to conduct business as if they were at their offices, Wigger says. While Connexion was free to passengers during the trial, Lufthansa expects to charge for the service when it debuts in the first half of 2004.
SAS Scandinavian Airlines has also signed up with Boeing to equip 11 long-haul aircraft with Connexion capability using new wireless technology exclusively. Although Lufthansa had hard-wired many seats with plug-in ports in the Boeing 747-400 trial aircraft, it also was equipped with a wireless local area network, making the system available everywhere in the cabin. The appropriate approvals to use such a system were received during the trial, providing access to wireless-enabled laptops.
SAS will install the broadband service in two aircraft early next year - operating transatlantic and Asian routes - and the remainder in 2005. It expects to charge $30-35 a flight for unlimited use.
British Airways is evaluating its three-month trial of Connexion on a 747 between London and New York, and a decision is expected in the autumn.
The other announced potential customer is Japan Airlines, which has not yet turned a letter of intent to become Connexion's Asian launch customer into a formal agreement.
Tenzing's international customers remain Cathay Pacific Airways and Virgin Atlantic Airways, both committed to equipping their full fleets with in-flight messaging products.
Cathay has more than half its fleet equipped with Tenzing's laptop e-mail system, allowing travellers to send and receive e-mails throughout the flight. Virgin Atlantic, which integrates the Tenzing short messaging capability through its Matsushita 3000 IFE system server, currently has the system installed on four Airbus A340-600s and two Boeing 747-400s and will equip two more A340s by the end of the year. The carrier charges $2.50 for each 160-character outbound message, and will be adding reply capability within months.
Differing philosophies
The widely divergent offerings reflect the differing philosophies of Boeing and Tenzing. "Our long-term goals are the same," says Stan Deal, Connexion's vice-president for global network sales. "Their view is to start with something 'thin' and grow it over time. We think real-time connectivity is what passengers expect. It allows them, at a price point, to do what they do on the ground; it's also about helping the airline use the technology to improve operations."
Deal nevertheless admits Verizon and Tenzing "have done something very creative" with the JetConnect product utilising existing phones, but still believes some carriers that sign up may still want a broadband solution. Connexion also is courting US carriers. "We expect to see an announcement by a US airline this year," Deal predicts.
Although the Tenzing offerings to date do not offer live e-mail capability, chief executive Alan McGinnis says he is not sure how many passengers will want to pay the $30-35 Connexion charges to check e-mail and surf the Internet real-time. Therefore, for the time being, Tenzing will provide a less costly way for travellers to keep in touch.
"Our solution takes advantage of technology that's on board the aircraft," he says. "The Connexion view is 'build it and they will come'; they're developing new infrastructure. We're much more practical, evolutionary in our approach. We will add functionality incrementally as the technology evolves."
McGinnis also reiterates Tenzing's expectation to move to broadband and to offer airlines the same operational benefits that Connexion is promising, but says that may not require satellites. "I would never debate whether passengers will have live connection at their seats," he says. "The question is when and at what cost, to the airline and the passenger. We don't think it's a practical solution yet for the airline."
As before: watch this space.
REPORT BY CAROLE SHIFRIN IN WASHINGTON
Source: Airline Business
