Lufthansa FlyNet, Interkont, A330, Business Class
Airborne Internet services are poised to make the hours that passengers spend in an aircraft cabin a dramatically different experience.
After years of considering in-flight Wi-Fi connections as just another revenue source, such as baggage fees, airlines and their suppliers are focusing on new services and applications, ranging from tracking passenger preferences to broadcasting live sports events 5 miles above the ground.
The carriers also could use the same broadband satellite links to send new types of weather and safety data to cockpits, while providing their ground crews with more detailed maintenance and engine data.
Passengers have been unexpectedly slow to embrace onboard Internet, but aerospace executives at the Paris international air show that ended here Sunday painted a futuristic picture of planes entirely connected to the Web from nose to tail.
For the past few years, proponents of the so-called connected airline have said the industry was on the cusp of a breakthrough. Now, for various technical and economic reasons, experts say those predictions are beginning to be borne out.
Faster broadband links via satellites are spurring software and hardware companies to devise products to enhance air passenger satisfaction.
“It’s taken a while to get some traction,” said David Bruner, vice president of global communications services for Panasonic Avionics Corp., the Southern California unit of Japanese electronics giant Panasonic Corp., and the industry leader in the number of planes equipped with Wi-Fi networks. “There is a need for broad, comprehensive services to get things moving forward.”
“It’s gone from what’s possible to what’s doable,” said Kent Statler, head of commercial systems at Rockwell Collins Inc., in an interview. The result is “a near-home type experience” for passengers surfing the Web.
In the same way cars and houses are becoming more connected via computers, faster broadband links via satellites are spurring software and hardware companies to devise products that can potentially enhance passenger satisfaction, lower maintenance and operational costs and save fuel.
Within 10 years, Panasonic expects to have some 14,000 aircraft-or nearly five times its current industry tally-on its Wi-Fi networks. Among other things, that could enable flight attendants to better tailor meal service or other amenities to passenger tastes.
“We’re investing a lot in reliability, performance and consistency of the system,” said Dominique Giannoni, chief executive of Thales SA’s Inflyt Experience unit. As the technology matures, he said, so are an array of business cases.
Many carriers “say connectivity is great because it is another touch point” with passengers, said Mr. Giannoni, placing the emphasis on a carrier’s brand and portal. Airline officials “ask if they can monetize [connectivity] through advertising and dedicated marketing campaigns,” he said.
So far, low data transmission speeds have meant that only about 5% of airline passengers log on to Wi-Fi if they have to pay for the service, according to Ian Dawkins, the chief executive of SITA Onair, which provides connectivity to roughly 300 customers around the globe. Other industry estimates of airborne Wi-Fi penetration are just as low.
But with improved satellite connectivity, passengers will soon be streaming live videos as they do on the ground, Mr. Dawkins said in an interview. Airlines will be able to build applications that can communicate with entertainment apps, such as video and music streaming services, enabling seat-back entertainment systems to make recommendations as soon passengers sit down, he said. “We really are at the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Last week at the show, the aerospace unit of hardware provider Honeywell International Inc. and Inmarsat PLC tested the satellite operator’s Global Xpress Aviation network, streaming live YouTube videos and digital radio on a demonstration flight.
Global Xpress network offers airlines transmission speeds of 50 megabits per second, compared with less than 500 kilobits per second on Inmarsat’s legacy satellites.
Inmarsat has launched two satellites for its latest network, though a third one securing truly global coverage likely is delayed several months due to technical problems with the Russian rocket slated to blast it into orbit. At least one other satellite constellation intended to enhance airborne navigation and boost connectivity also is delayed.
Honeywell also builds radars that sit on the tip of the plane and determine the weather for a radius of roughly 300 nautical miles. But if an entire fleet of jets were connected via satellites, those radars could create a real-time picture of the weather across thousands of miles, said Carl Esposito, vice president of marketing and product management for Honeywell Aerospace. The upshot, experts agree, would be smoother trips and fewer flight diversions for travelers.
Just like consumer electronics, “as we get more bandwidth, more innovative things happen,” said Mr. Esposito.
Airlines also could reap savings from better predicting maintenance needs for parts and aircraft. Christopher O’Connor, general manager for Internet of things at International Business Machines Corp., is focusing on the millions of parts installed on modern Airbus Group SE and Boeing Co. jets from roughly 3,000 suppliers. Using sensors on many of these parts to more regularly communicate performance could save up to 10% on maintenance costs, Mr. O’Connor said.
Such connectivity doesn’t come cheap, however. According to Mr. O’Connor, retrofitting a regional-size airline with sensors and hardware costs roughly $2 million.
In the future, when Web access is universal among airlines, marketing efforts will be distinguishing factors, said Panasonic’s Mr. Bruner. Once everybody has access to broadband connections, he said, the main question will be “who is able to use that eventually to give better service” to passengers and provide sponsorship opportunities for advertisers. www.wsj.com
