|
|
|
Onair Receives Green Light For First Inflight Mobile Phone System |
|
|
|
Written by Adam Gosling
|
|
Monday, 25 June 2007 |
PRESS RELEASE: LE BOURGET, PARIS
- OnAir has announced today at the Paris Air Show that the European
Aviation Safety Authority (EASA) has certified the airborne GSM equipment,
which supports OnAir services on Airbus A318.
For the first time, this will
enable airline passengers in Europe to use
their BlackBerryÔ-type devices and mobile phones during flights.
EASA is the competent
authority in the European Union with responsibility for the airworthiness
certification of all aeronautical products. As such, it develops common safety
rules at the European level and is also responsible for type-certification.
Benoit Debains, CEO of
OnAir, said, "The airborne equipment has been designed to meet the
specific needs of the aviation environment. This certification validates the
integrity of the work that Airbus has done in developing and integrating
technology from best of breed suppliers."
Debains continued,
"This airworthiness certification is a major milestone in the
process of bringing our service to market. It follows successful testing
earlier this year."
The OnAir mobile telephony service will
allow passengers to use their BlackBerry-type devices and mobile phones during
flights to send and receive emails and text messages as well as make and
receive calls. The service will be launched on an Air France aircraft, followed
by bmi and TAP (of Portugal)
aircraft.
All three airlines will run single aircraft commercial trials on
Airbus aircraft, which will allow them to fine-tune their passenger
communications offer and evaluate it before embarking on a fuller-scale
deployment. The first fleet deployment of OnAir's services will be on
Ryanair's Boeing 737 aircraft.
Related news items Newer news items
Older news items |
|
|
