UAE airline to provide onboard wireless internet

Speaking at the World Broadband Forum in Paris, Etihad CEO James Hogan said that the airline will have two aircraft with operational onboard internet by December this year, and five aircraft by March, 2012. 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.

Airlines around the world now face pressure from customers to make broadband internet access standard on all flights, but cautioned the industry to invest wisely in wireless innovation. "Perhaps the biggest challenge is to stay in synch on this incredibly fast and exciting journey into the future. Annually, airlines invest billions in aircraft and millions in inflight entertainment and other trappings, years before the aircraft enter service. Changes in technology move at the speed of light and there is an ever present danger of investing heavily in a system or hardware that is likely to be obsolete by the time it rolls off the production line", he said.

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."