Internet for Europe-bound Etihad passengers

Europe-bound passengers on Etihad airways will have access to wireless internet onboard by the end of the year as global airlines try keep pace with wireless innovation, according to Etihad CEO James Hogan. “I can tell you that Etihad will have two aircraft with operational onboard internet by December this year, and five aircraft by March, 2012,” he said today at the World Broadband Forum in Paris. “Three of those five aircraft will be Airbus A330-300s, which will operate between Abu Dhabi and cities like Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Munich and Paris. And we are right at the point now of settling on a fleet-wide connectivity solution for the years to come.” While airlines are facing pressure from customers to provide internet access on all flights, there is the danger of investing heavily in a system or hardware that becomes obsolete by the time it rolls of production lines, he added. In a wide-ranging speech concerned with the effects of the internet revolution on the aviation industry, Hogan said wireless processes enabled huge financial savings to be made. “The associated changes now deliver around $18bn in efficiency savings each year, some of which is passed on to customers, some of which enables continued reinvestment.”