Air travelers can expect better mobile services

An Air China official holds an Internet conference on the airliner's flight CA4116 in April. Air China and Hainan Airlines Co Ltd have sought permission to test in-flight connectivity. Photos by Wang Zemin for China Daily

Chinese airlines show interests in in-flight WiFi system

Mobile devices have become part of people's daily life nowadays and many passengers bring their devices aboard, but without in-flight WiFi service, they only can play Angry Birds game during the boring flight period. That will change on the flights of Air China Ltd. The company signed an agreement with Honeywell Aerospace, part of Honeywell International Inc. It will test from the second quarter 2015 the Global Xpress (GX) Aviation system on its fleet of A330 aircraft.

GX Aviation is a high-speed Ka-band in-flight connectivity service powered by GX Ka-band satellite network of Inmarsat Plc, a communications firm established in 1979 by the International Maritime Organization to enable ships to stay in touch with the shore or call for help.

With the technology, passengers can expect a 60 percent faster download speed compared with now.

The first GX satellite was launched in December 2013, Bill Peltola, Inmarsat's aviation vice president said. The second and third GX satellites are scheduled for launch by year-end.

Those three satellites will span the globe and provide a more stable signal.

There are two different solutions to provide in-flight connectivity services currently, either through ground bases or satellites.

Compared with the new satellites, the current satellite solution is less certain, as a result of satellites moving from area to area, Jack Jacobs, Honeywell Aerospace's vice president of marketing and product management, said. Once the new satellites are in place, the cost of the satellite service will be lower too, he said.

Under Honeywell and Inmarsat's agreement, the US technology company will exclusively develop, produce and distribute onboard hardware to allow mobile-device users to connect to Inmarsat's GX constellation network.

"The advantage of GX Aviation is not just its satellites," said Brian Davis, vice president, Asia Pacific, Airlines, Honeywell Aerospace. It's "also for the global and high-speed communication network."

Being able to connect at higher speed to the network while in flight will open opportunities industry wide. Honeywell showed related research applications at its international media day on May 21.

The satellite system can be used elsewhere, said Vamsi Gundluru, Honeywell's marketing and product manager of cockpit systems. It can provide real-time data to a maintenance center when the airplane is flying and show the flight path to passengers. The company will continue to further cut costs and increase speed, he added.