It was announced today that oneworld member Royal Jordanian will be the first airline in the Middle East to provide its passengers with OnAir's inflight Internet and mobile phone services, including email, SMS and voice calls.
The OnAir service will enable Royal Jordanian's passengers to use their mobile phones and BlackBerry-type devices to send and receive text messages, emails, and to make and receive mobile phone calls inflight, as well as to use their laptops to access the Internet. The airline's single aisle A320 Family will be installed with a standalone GSM/GPRS system in 2008 and the twin aisle A340 Family will be installed with the GSM/GPRS/Internet service in 2009.
The service will be available on routes in the Middle East and Europe.
Mobile OnAir will allow unlimited text messages and emails to be sent, and will allow up to 11 simultaneous voice calls. A central feature of the service is the crew's ability to turn it off at any time, or switch it to 'silent' - text and email only - mode, enabling the airline to customize the services to its passengers' preferences. For example, airlines could turn off the voice element, or even the whole service, during quiet times.
Posted to the site on 13th November 2007
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/27394.php