Air France-KLM has signed a partnership agreement with Gogo to offer its passengers connectivity services on board its long-haul flights.
A total of 124 long-haul aircraft will be equipped with Wi-Fi on board starting from end 2017,
- 68 Air France Boeing 777
- 15 Air France Airbus A330
- 29 KLM Boeing 777
- 12 KLM Airbus A330
The first aircraft is expected to be in service end of 2017, with the bulk of the installations taking place during 2018-2019.
With this new joint agreement, Air France and KLM passengers will benefit from WiFi during their trip by staying connected around the world with their family, friends or business partners, on their smartphone, laptop or tablet.
On the in-house Air France-KLM designed onboard portal a freely accessible environment is available where passengers can find relevant information about their flight, arrange travel details and find entertainment beyond the state of the art seat-back inflight entertainment systems.
The 2Ku product from Gogo offers a future-proof platform based on the latest antenna technology, bringing flexibility to adapt to growing demands from our customers.
Michel Pozas Lucic, Vice President Customer Innovation and Care Air France-KLM:
“We want to offer our customers the best possible solution to stay connected. By installing the latest WiFi technology on board on more than 120 aircraft in our long-haul fleet, we are once again illustrating our ability to innovate and provide all our passengers with the best possible experience”.
Michael Small, Gogo’s president and CEO:
“We are delighted to bring Gogo’s industry leading 2Ku technology to one of the largest airlines in the world and two of the most iconic brands in commercial aviation. 2Ku delivers a ground-like performance to aircraft flying around the world today, including the ability to stream video. One of the many benefits of 2Ku is that it’s built on an open architecture and can leverage new technology advancements in the future, which means the technology will get even better over time and will provide passengers with a superior connectivity experience now and in the future.”
Air France-KLM Boeing 787s already equipped with Wi-Fi
On Air France-KLM’s long-haul fleet, passengers already enjoy Wi-Fi on board the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, with currently 8 aircraft operated by KLM and the first aircraft operated by Air France as from 9 January next year.
The 787s, which offer Wi-Fi on board, are equipped by Panasonic Avionics, and offer the same portal and products as planned on the rest of the long-haul fleet.
Gogo has partnerships with 16 commercial airlines and has installed in-flight connectivity technology on more than 2,800 commercial aircraft.
N.B. Image credit: Air France-KLM
