Spanish airline Vueling is adding onboard wifi to its aircraft from as early as next month.
The no-frills carrier, which is now owned by British Airways’ parent company IAG, is hoping the move will allow it to steal a march on rivals Ryanair and Easyjet, which are both targeting the corporate market.
Following two years of negotiations, Vueling has struck a deal with an unnamed company to provide in-flight connectivity at no cost to the airline.
Vueling’s CEO Alex Cruz (pictured) told Bloomberg that onboard wifi would be “prohibitively expensive” without this deal in place, but did not give any details about the potential cost to passengers of the service.
He said: "It's so easy to 'premiumise' by spending money, but if we were to do it that would be the beginning of our death sentence.
"The short- and medium-haul business is a nasty business with a competitive environment, so you cannot lose sight of cost."
Cruz said the airline is also considering two or three other features aimed at the business traveller.
Barcelona-based Vueling is adding more than 50 routes to its network in 2014, Cruz added.
Vueling has already announced a new base at Brussels starting next spring and IAG chief executive Willie Walsh has hinted that more bases will be launched in the next few months.
vueling.com