Jetstar BYOs The Wireless

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 13 November 2007

Qantas-owned Jetstar Airways has built its own ground to air wireless data system to handle transfers between ground crews and its planes. According to this report Jetstar decided to build its own system, with the help of a Melbourne-based specialist in data aviation in order to avoid paying licensing fees to the traditional suppliers. Working for two and a half years, Jetstar and Aviation Data Systems (Aust) built the ground to air system to handle data coming off its A320 and A330 Airbus fleet to eight locations around Australia. It is reportedly the first airline in the word to go it alone, with all others paying fees to global groups SITA and AINC to use the ACARS network for data transfers. The company told The Fin that it encountered some delays in launching the system because the equipment on board some of the planes was configured to only work with either of the two standard suppliers. Stephen Tame, Jetstar's CIO told the newspaper they had been unsuccessful in cutting a deal with the suppliers as the airline didn't want to pay licence fees for areas it didn't fly to. Newer news items Samsung Leading WiMAX Vendor: ABI Research -11/03/2008 Sony Wireless Data Touches 560Mbps -07/01/2008 New Satellite Broadband In New Year -12/12/2007 Dell Australia Adds BigPond Data -03/12/2007 Vodafone Offers Generous Data Plans -28/11/2007 Older news items Major Players To Test WiMAX Interoperability -26/09/2007 Telstra Wireless Hits Speed Record -24/09/2007 Chilli iBurst Increases Download Limits -16/09/2007 NewSat Deal With Dodo -05/09/2007 NetComm Goes 3G With New Range -05/09/2007 Tag This Now: