Posts Tagged ‘emirates’

Air New Zealand goes for in-flight SMS

Thursday, April 10th, 2008

Europe gave the thumbs up for mobile usage on planes, after Emirates, Continental Airlines and Qantas decided to introduce the service. Now, it seems, New Zealand is next in line.

According to the New Zealand Herald, the Kiwi’s national carrier is planning to introduce an in-flight texting service.

Meanwhile, several reports have highlighted that despite European and antipodean enthusiasm for in-flight SMS, Asia and the US aren’t planning to introduce any mile-high connectivity any time soon. I can’t help but think it’s a bit of a miss opportunity – surely long haul flights are where the boredom sets in and the texting fingers start getting itchy?

In-flight mobile calls take off with Emirates

Friday, March 21st, 2008

The world has finally got its first commercial in-flight mobile service, thanks to Emirates and supplier AeroMobile. Emirates saw its first call on flight EK751, on a plane travelling between Dubai and Casablanca yesterday.

According to AeroMobile, it’s the first time that voice calls have been allowed on commercial airline flights, after the European Aviation Safety Agency and the United Arab Emirates-based General Civil Aviation Authority gave the system the thumbs-up.

It looks like AeroMobile and Emirates have really done their research here. There’s a second aircraft coming online soon, so the service isn’t just a one-off, BlackBerry email and other GPRS data applications will be available later on this year and there’s even a politeness policy enforced making sure that passengers keep their mobiles on silent. If Emirates get the pricing right, it could be the testbed that proves demand for in-flight mobility.


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