Bmi passengers on the carrier’s London Heathrow to Moscow route can now use their mobiles and laptops to check emails and access the internet, following the start of a six-month trial.
Bmi is piloting the service (supplied by OnAir) on an Airbus A320 operating between Heathrow and Moscow. Passengers will be able to send and receive text messages on their mobile phones and PDAs, as well as access the internet and email accounts on laptops fitted with GSM data cards.
Unlike a similar service being rolled out by Emirates (see online news March 20), Bmi will not be allowing mobile phone calls to be made in-flight. Says Peter Spencer, managing director of Bmi:
“The trial will help us address some of the social and etiquette issues regarding the use of mobile communications devices inflight and provide valuable customer feedback which will be at the heart of deciding how the service is developed and rolled out across the remainder of our mid-haul fleet. There are currently no plans to introduce voice calls as part of this service.”
For more information visit flybmi.com.
Report by Mark Caswell