Emirates Airline has seen the future, and it comes with free Wi-Fi.
The Dubai airline yesterday said that it would retrofit all of its fleet with Wi-Fi and expected the service to be complimentary. The news came after the airline enjoyed a 200 per cent increase in usage last month.
It did not say when free Wi-Fi might be available, but it appears disinclined to wait.
“If we can offer good quality Wi-Fi connections for everyone on board at no charge tomorrow, we will do it,” said Tim Clark, the airline’s president. “But we face a slew of technical limitations – from speed and bandwidth availability and cost, to the supporting hardware and software – all of which we are working hard to address with the industry right now.
“Ultimately, we believe that on-board Wi-Fi will become a free service, and a standard that customers will expect on a full service airline.”
Currently, Emirates has Wi-Fi on all of its 53 Airbus A380s and on its 28 Boeing 777s.
Will Horton, a senior analyst at Centre for Aviation (Capa), said: “Wi-Fi has gone from a perk to competitive necessity, and the next step will be paid necessity to free necessity. There’s also the necessary step of opening up coverage spots currently blocked off by governments.”
Emirates, which invests about US$20 million annually on installing and operating in-flight connectivity systems, noted a huge demand in Wi-Fi usage in October after a promotion for the Eid holidays.
The airline said that the daily average was 3,500 passengers using on-board Wi-Fi last month, at about 28MB per user.
Emirates said yesterday that on "most" flights passengers can pay US$1 for more than 600MB of data, which includes the first 10MB free. However, the airline said that on a few of its A380s and 777s, it is not currently possible to offer the first 10MB free for "technical reasons". Emirates said it was working to resolve the problem in the coming months.
“We’ve always viewed Wi-Fi as a service and a value-added part of Emirates’ overall product, rather than a revenue stream,” said Mr Clark.
selgazzar@thenational.ae
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