Emirates sees free onboard Wi-Fi as future standard

Emirates said to be the world's largest international airline, said this week it invests over US$20 million annually on installing and operating inflight connectivity systems which enable onboard Wi-Fi services.

"In the first three years since Emirates launched inflight Wi-Fi connectivity, over half a million passengers have connected to the Internet onboard an Emirates flight, and this demand is expected to increase exponentially," it said in a media statement.Onboard Wi-Fi is available on all of Emirates' 53 A380s and on 28 Boeing 777s, which serve routes across six continents. The airline also has an aggressive retrofit programme which will eventually see its entire fleet WiFi enabled. Importantly, Emirates is subsidizing or waiving the high cost of buying data for passenger use.

"It is a fact that our customers want onboard connectivity, and this demand is only going to increase as more people embrace an 'always-on' digital lifestyle, and carry smart mobile devices when they travel. We've always viewed Wi-Fi as a service and a valueadded part of Emirates' overall product, rather than a revenue stream," said Sir Tim Clark, President Emirates Airline.

He added: "If we can offer good quality Wi-Fi connections for everyone onboard at no charge tomorrow, we will do it. But we face a slew of technical limitations - from speed and bandwidth availability and cost, to the supporting hardware and software - all of which we are working hard to address with the industry right now. Ultimately, we believe that onboard Wi-Fi will become a free service, and a standard that customers will expect on a full service airline, just like onboard refreshments and personal inflight entertainment. Emirates is leading the way on this, and we are working closely with our suppliers and various stakeholders towards this vision."

On most Emirates flights equipped with Wi-Fi, passengers enjoy the first 10MBs of data for free, which is sufficient for most travelers to check in on their social media accounts. Subsequently, a token US$1 charge is imposed for the next 600MB. Emirates is updating its software programming to eventually enable passengers to have unlimited free access to Wi-Fi.

Last month, Emirates saw a daily average of 3,500 passengers using onboard WiFi, at an average of 28MB per user. The highest number of Wi-Fi users on a single Emirates flight was recorded on an A380 with 153 passengers connecting, and the highest Internet volume recorded on a single flight was nearly 8,000MB from 26 users onboard a Boeing 777 flight.