Garuda Indonesia is planning to start offering wifi and mobile services on its long-haul flights from the end of the year.
The airline will offer the service provided by OnAir, where passengers pay a fee to connect to an onboard GSM network or an onboard wifi hotspot using their own devices. It has not yet stated what the rates will be, or whether it will allow voice calls.
Garuda will fit the service across its fleet of 28 A330 aircraft. It will retrofit the service to its existing A330s, starting in November, and will also install it on the 21 new aircraft it has on order.
“Connectivity is now a must-have for any airline wishing to offer the most up-to-date cabin services,” said Ian Dawkins, CEO of OnAir.
Garuda follows several other airlines launching inflight connectivity services. On September 6, Singapore Airlines began offering OnAir’s inflight connectivity service on 14 of its aircraft and said it plans to progressively introduce this on more of the fleet (see story here).
Read a special report on in-flight connectivity in the October edition of Business Traveller Asia-Pacific, including a complete list of airlines currently offering either wifi or mobile connectivity services to passengers.
Nicholas Olczak
