Several international carriers recently introduced or expanded inflight Internet access, including Scandinavian Airlines System, which late last month said it had become the first to offer wireless high-speed connections on all long-haul flights. Others that launched or announced similar services last month included All Nippon Airways, El Al and Japan Airlines, adding to a growing list of carriers that have said they are responding to strong customer demand for inflight connectivity.
SAS said all 261 seats on Airbus A330 and A340 aircraft serving routes from Copenhagen and Stockholm to Chicago, Newark, Seattle, Washington, D.C., and points in Asia now are equipped with high-speed service powered by Connexion by Boeing.
"There are far more users than we anticipated," said Scandinavian Airlines CEO Lars Lindgren, noting particularly high demand on flights to Beijing, Tokyo and U.S. destinations. "We knew from our surveys that there was demand for the service, but we could not have imagined that the level of use would be so high." The SAS service is priced at $29.95 per flight for unlimited use, similar to pricing at other carriers.
Meanwhile, several Asian airlines are in the process of rolling out wireless inflight Internet. Japan Airlines last month enabled the service on certain New York-Tokyo flights, with additional installations occurring through June. Japan Airlines previously installed the service on London-Tokyo flights.
All Nippon Airways last month also activated broadband Internet connections aboard New York-Tokyo flights. The carrier plans to extend the service in October to Los Angeles-Tokyo flights, followed by installation on San Francisco-Tokyo flights next spring. Connexion by Boeing provides the service to both JAL and ANA.
Singapore Airlines, another Connexion customer, in March claimed to be the region's first carrier to offer high-speed Internet when it brought the service to daily Singapore-London flights. It plans to add routes to the program in the coming months.
Israel's El Al this month also will begin installing Connexion services, with installation on its long-haul fleet continuing through the end of 2006. Other carriers that plan to install Connexion services include Asiana, China Airlines and Korean Airlines, which expects to launch the product on Seoul-New York flights as early as this month.
Lufthansa German Airlines helped to pioneer the technology when it launched FlyNet—including Connexion service—one year ago on flights between Munich and Los Angeles. It now offers high-speed Internet connections on half of all long-haul flights, including service to several U.S. airports. Last month, Lufthansa said 85 percent of 1,600 passengers from three continents said availability of high-speed Internet access would influence their choice of airlines.
Inflight Internet connectivity, of course, is of particular interest to corporate travelers who want to maintain productivity en route. Siemens AG was one of the first companies to begin equipping traveling employees to take advantage of such services
(BTN, Aug. 2, 2004).Having launched inflight Internet service one year ago, Connexion's next phase will be to add television programming to its inflight broadband services. Singapore Airlines will debut the service next month, which then will be expanded to other airline customers.
Some North American carriers also offer live television programming, but none has yet installed high-speed Internet capabilities beyond e-mail and messaging services. Continental, Northwest, United and US Airways, for example, partnered with Tenzing and Verizon Airfone to provide e-mail access to laptop users.
Tenzing, however, does offer wireless Internet access beyond e-mail and counts Emirates among its clients for those services.