Keeping connected

The trial, which ran from April last year to January this year, saw technology from British company AeroMobile fitted to a 767. Vanessa Hudson, Qantas’s general manager of product and services, coordinated the trial and said that it was a great success. “We had that in a live environment for 10 months and basically that system was operable wherever the aircraft was scheduled. ” “The reason for our decision to roll it out quite extensively was based on the feedback we had from our customers during that trial. The feedback was overwhelming in terms of customers saying that this kind of technology, particularly the data and the email connectivity that it gave them, was really highly valued.

“A lot of our customers said particularly when they fly between Sydney and Melbourne, the flight is part of their working day, so it really helps them to catch up and finish things inflight rather than when they get home or later on,” she said.

The AeroMobile technology uses a small mobile cellular repeater, or ‘picocell’, which is fitted to the aircraft.

This allows regular mobile phones to use the system, which then routes the SMS or data through the Inmarsat satellite network to a ground station in Norway, and is then sent through the regular mobile telephone network.

To use the system, customers will only have to ensure that their phone is enabled for international roaming and that their carrier has a roaming agreement with AeroMobile. “Customers pay for the use of data and email services through their own telecommunication providers.

It operates like basically a ‘country’ in the sky,” said Hudson.

Qantas will now progressively fit the AeroMobile system to its domestic 767s and A330s from late this year.

The carrier currently doesn’t have plans to extend the AeroMobile system onto its international fleet but could do so if customers demand it, according to Hudson.

“We’re evaluating it [on international services]. Where we’ve focused has been driven by customer demand.

We have absolutely . . . experienced from our evaluation that there is a higher demand from our customers for this to be a domestic product.

But obviously we’re evaluating what options we have for our international fleet. ” As the system is on board the aircraft, mobile phones do not have to emit large amounts of energy to send a signal to a ground based repeater station. This means that devices do not cause any interference with the aircraft’s systems. Nevertheless, as with other electronic devices, phones will still have to be turned off during taxi, takeoff and landing.

Although it has the option to, Qantas will not include voice calls as a function on board its aircraft as the trial indicated that most passengers did not want the ability to make or take voice calls. “There were some people who said that they wanted voice capability, but it was not the overwhelming response,” said Hudson.

“Really the data and email connectivity was far more valuable for them. ” The move by Qantas to roll out the service across the domestic fleet will help the carrier to fend off Virgin Blue’s push into the business travel market in Australia. There is no doubt that Qantas has also taken the action to ensure that Virgin Blue did not adopt the technology first, giving it a key advantage in the domestic market. However, Virgin Blue has shown that it also believes in the technology, with the announcement that V Australia will feature the phone connectivity onboard its fleet of Boeing 777-300ERs. The announcement came as part of the product launch for V Australia on March 31 (see page 52 for more details).

In a press release, Virgin Blue CEO Brett Godfrey said that it would be the only airline offering the system on the trans-Pacific route.

“It is part of our strategy to provide guests with the freedom to do what they want, when they want, whether it be SMS and emails, on-demand movies or eating when they are hungry. It’s about freedom of choice and giving travellers the option to stay in touch while in the air. ” V Australia will be the first to use the Panasonic Avionics eXphone system, which integrates the capabilities and hardware of the AeroMobile technology with the aircraft’s inflight entertainment system.

According to Panasonic, the eXphone system is lighter and less complicated than installing the IFE and mobile phone systems separately. For V Australia, this will allow the system to be fitted during assembly of its first 777, which began in April and should be available from the airline’s first flight on December 15.

Like Qantas’s system, V Australia will allow passengers to use their mobile phones for SMS, email and data from their seats, but the carrier also plans to offer special zones where passengers will be able to make voice calls. However, rates for calls made onboard the aircraft are not likely to be cheap.

V Australia’s announcement that it intends to launch the service is likely to speed up a decision from Qantas on whether to install the AeroMobile system on its international fleet. But Hudson insists that it will only do so if passengers on its international routes demand it.

Nevertheless, she points out that Qantas’s new generation aircraft will feature some levels of connectivity as part of their inflight entertainment systems, although this will not feature support for mobile phones.

“The A380 aircraft coming this year will have technology also that enables webmail and web chat connectivity with it and subsequently laptop connectivity,” she said.

While V Australia and Qantas will be among the first carriers to use the technology in the Asia Pacific region, they are by no means the only ones using it.

Indeed, shortly after Qantas made its announcement, Emirates announced that it made a voice call on board one of its Airbus A340‑300s on March 25 during a flight from Casablanca to Dubai using the AeroMobile system.

Emirates is investing US$27m (A$30m) to equip its fleet with the AeroMobile service. A Boeing 777-300 has also been fitted with the system and will be in operation soon, in addition to the A340-300 from which that first call was made.

Air France has also had a similar system operating on board one of its A318s on flights around Europe and to North Africa since December last year. The Airbus is fitted with the rival OnAir system, which is itself a joint venture between Airbus and airline communications company SITA.

Qatar Airways and Jazeera Airways of Kuwait recently announced orders for OnAir technology at the recent Aircraft Interiors expo in Hamburg. OnAir also has orders from carriers in China, India, Europe and other carriers in the Middle East.

While premium carriers such as Qantas, V Australia, Air France and Emirates are using the new mobile phone technology as a point of difference to enhance their product for business travellers, other carriers are looking at mobile phone use on board to drive revenue growth.

In Europe, discount airline Ryanair is progressively fitting its fleet of Boeing 737s with the OnAir system and will receive a commission on the roaming charges from passengers using their mobile phones while on board.

“This is a win-win for Ryanair, OnAir and most importantly our customers,” said CEO Michael O’Leary when the agreement between the carrier and OnAir was reached last year. “The revenues generated by onboard mobile telephony will reduce our costs and help us to keep offering the lowest fares in Europe. ” AirAsia and AirAsia X have also signed up to use the OnAir system. AirAsia X will receive its first A330-300 with the system built into it later this year, while AirAsia plans to have the system installed on 150 A320s by 2013. The two carriers are also planning to generate revenue from the system.

With both convenience for passengers and revenue for the airlines, it seems that using a mobile phone on board could soon become the norm as more airlines take up the technology.

“We believe that the ability to communicate efficiently, easily and safely when on board flights will become an every-day feature of business and leisure travel very quickly,” said AeroMobile CEO Bjorn-Taale Sandberg.

Time will tell if being connected at 30,000ft will be a blessing or a burden for travellers.