BA to roll out sky-high Wi-fi, but budget airlines insist passengers just want a break

BRITISH Airways flights across Europe could have Wi-fi on board from June – with passengers able to check emails, post on social media and upload “selfie” photographs from the cabin.

The airline’s parent company IAG, which also owns Aer Lingus and Iberia, is introducing high speed Wi-fi on board selected aircraft this June before rolling it out across 90 per cent of its short-haul fleet by 2019.

While on-board Wi-fi is common on long-haul flights, it is rare in Europe because the dense airspace makes connection to satellites patchy.

IAG is the launch customer of the European Aviation Network (EAN), a new system that allows aircraft to connect to 300 ground towers across Europe as well as satellites. The system, developed by Inmarsat and Deutsche Telekom, requires far lighter on-board equipment than before.

An Inmarsat spokesman previously told The Daily Telegraph the weight of equipment had not been fuel-efficient for short-haul aircraft, which are often smaller. “We will see airlines able to offer reliable, high-speed and futureproof in-flight broadband access across Europe’s high-traffic flight paths,” the spokesman added.

“Until now, European airlines have been forced to rely on heavy satellite based in-flight internet. EAN requires a few very small and light antennas making it ideally suited for fitting on smaller aircraft that are typically used on European routes.”

The spokesman said the company was in discussions “with all major airlines” about the technology and added that it costs hundreds of thousands of pounds to install. Passengers of Britain’s budget airlines might, however, be left disappointed. Ryanair and easyjet said they had “no current plans” to offer it. A Ryanair spokesman said: “Some [passengers] are delighted to be out of contact during their flight where they get some respite from email and social media”