China Eastern Airlines Corp Ltd will become the first Chinese mainland carrier to provide in-flight Wi-Fi services on select long-haul international flights.
The Wi-Fi services will be available from Thursday on China Eastern flights from Shanghai to New York, Los Angeles and Toronto. With this, China Eastern becomes the first mainland airline to provide such services, said a company statement.
It has already received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to provide in-flight Wi-Fi services on 21 of its wide-bodied aircraft for both domestic and international flights.
The service will be free of charge during the three-month trial period, and passengers traveling by China Eastern can apply for Internet connection in advance on the carrier's official website.
A certain amount of money for the service will be charged after the trial period, said the statement.
According to China Eastern's plan, it will expand the service on more flights, and more than 20 aircraft will provide in-flight Wi-Fi services by the end of this year.
All of its flights from Shanghai to North America will be equipped with on-board Internet services by the middle of December along with the flights to Vancouver and San Francisco. Select domestic flights from Shanghai to Beijing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chengdu and Chongqing will also offer the service.
The major cost for providing such services comes from alternation of each aircraft that costs about several hundred thousand dollars, as well as the Internet connection fee from satellites, Zhang Chi, deputy director of the airlines' business development office, was quoted as saying by China Business News.
Honeywell Aerospace, a leading manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics, said in a report that in-flight Wi-Fi is likely to be one of the key determining factors for passenger buying habits.
"The value-added service is designed to retain the high-end business passengers who believe Internet connections are necessary," said Li Lei, an industrial analyst from Minzu Securities Co Ltd.
