British Airways is in discussions with mobile services firm Inmarsat to roll out in-flight broadband services on European short-haul routes.
Inmarsat has confirmed it will spend around £250 million on a new ground network and S-band satellite, called Europasat, to launch high-speed Internet to the aviation industry – the cost will be shared by French-Italian space group Thales Alenia Space.
The service is expected to be launched in 2016, when BA will become a launch customer on the new aviation network.
British Airways currently provides Internet access and texting capability on just two aircraft that offer business class only flights between London City airport and New York.
Kate Thornton, BA's head of product and service, said British Airways would start with a service on its domestic routes, “giving our customers the Internet access they expect on the ground while in the air”.
Inmarsat’s CEO Rupert Pearce said the service is similar to the air-to-ground network Gogo, which is widely available on flights in North America.
He said the success of Gogo has already triggered the building of a second competing network by AT&T, and he hopes to tap into that market.
“We believe that the same in-flight connectivity opportunity exists in Europe and that, with the support of EU telecoms regulators, Inmarsat can rapidly bring to market unique, high speed aviation passenger connectivity services to meet this market demand on an EU-wide basis.
“A number of European airlines are aligned with this vision and we are absolutely delighted to announce advanced discussions with British Airways to be a launch customer on our new aviation network.”
Inmarsat confirmed it’s in talks with five other European airlines about using its service on short-haul airlines.
BA.com