Bird (not) on a wire … Etihad Airways goes wireless

Etihad Airways has announced plans to provide a wireless internet connection on-board. The new service will be available on selected routes to Europe before the end of the year.

Etihad chief executive James Hogan said: “I can tell you that Etihad will have two aircraft with operational, on-board internet by December this year and five aircraft by March 2012.”

Speaking at the World Broadband Forum in Paris, he continued: “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.”

The biggest challenge for the airline is the speed at which technology develops. Airlines are now facing pressure from consumers to provide broadband internet access on all flights. In his speech, Mr Hogan suggested that there was a danger of investing in a hardware system that could be out of date by the time the aircraft takes to the skies.

He also added that Etihad’s online sales in July 2011 were up by 71 per cent on the same period last year.  The carrier has recently increased the number of flights between Abu Dhabi and Manchester, and is now running 14 flights a week between the two cities.

Earlier this year, Etihad Airways was crowned the Middle East’s leading airline at the World Travel Awards for the Middle East.

It picked up four gongs and also won the Middle East’s leading Airline Inflight Entertainment award and Cabin Staff award.

(Image: griffsoooo)

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