Etihad Airways becomes first to offer full OnAir connectivity

UAE national airline Etihad Airways has now become the first airline in the world to offer full OnAir connectivity on its Airbus A320 aircraft. The airline received its first aircraft, which is equipped with the combined Mobile OnAir services, in August this year.

So far, customers buying airline tickets on Etihad Airways and traveling on its A330-300 aircrafts were being offered OnAir’s combined Wi-Fi and GSM connectivity service for nearly two years.

According to Etihad Airways, the use of GSM service has been quite popular among the two options available to the customers. The GSM service is being used for a range of activities. The airline said that 76 percent customers have been using the GSM service for mobile data (sending emails), 33 percent are using it for sending text messages and 21 percent have been using it for making and receiving calls.

The airline further stated that Wi-Fi service is particularly important on flights that are of over four hour duration, during which most of the customers prefer spending more time surfing the Internet.