Etihad Airways (EY) launched its first aircraft with inflight connectivity — three Airbus A330-300s and one A320 — in January 2012. One additional connectivity-enabled A320 will be delivered in March 2012.
The service provider for these five aircraft is OnAir. The remainder of the widebody fleet will fall under its Panasonic agreement, according to an EY spokesperson.
On the A320, passengers will have full mobile connectivity, enabling them to use their own mobile phones and Smartphones to make and receive phone-calls, send and receive text messages and emails, and access mobile data services.
The A330-300 aircraft will offer the same, as well as WiFi Internet capability capability for personal laptop and tablet use.
For its launch phase, EY offers mobile and tablet connectivity from $10, and laptop WiFi connectivity from $20. It charges for mobile telephone calls “according to the international roaming rates of guests’ mobile network provider.”
