SriLankan Airlines flies its first fully-connected aircraft

GENEVA - SriLankan Airlines’ first fully-connected A330-300 (registration 4R-ALL) entered commercial service on Sunday (9 November, 2014). It is equipped with both Internet OnAir and Mobile OnAir. This is an historic moment for SriLankan Airlines, with the national carrier launching a new era of world travel by providing its passengers a more luxurious on-board experience. Putting full inflight connectivity on the aircraft demonstrates the Airline’s growing commitment to redefining the flying experience.

Passengers on board the delivery flight from Toulouse to Colombo, including SriLankan Airlines’ Chief Marketing Officer, G. T. Jeyaseelan, all made special mention of the aircraft’s inflight connectivity.

Once they’ve tweeted from 35,000 feet and told their friends on Facebook that they’re chatting to them live from an aircraft, passengers can knuckle down to send emails or simply continue to browse the web. The combination of Wi-Fi and mobile phone connectivity allows passengers to take a flight without missing a beat.

“We are gearing-up SriLankan to meet the challenges and ever-growing demands of the global travel industry,” said SriLankan Airlines’ Chief Marketing Officer, G. T. Jeyaseelan.

"Our new fleet is giving us the opportunity to introduce innovative products and services to enhance the passenger experience. Providing mobile phone and Internet connectivity is a very important element of our superior offering in a highly competitive market.”

Now in service, the aircraft will be deployed on different routes as part of the performance evaluation programme that will last for a period of three months. Consequently, SriLankan Airlines began commercial operations of its newly acquired Airbus 330-300 with a direct non-stop service to London on Sunday.

At the conclusion of the evaluation programme, the Airline will decide on a particular route for the new aircraft, based on passenger volumes, route yields, demand for Business Class, frequency and consistency of the product, as well as the number of aircraft required to support the frequencies to a particular destination. SriLankan is looking to deploy its new A330-300s primarily on Far-Eastern routes including Bangkok, Tokyo and Chinese cities of Canton and Beijing.

OnAir has an unrivalled number of roaming agreements with mobile network operators in the region. Therefore, passengers from both Sri Lanka and other countries can all access to the inflight mobile phone network throughout the flight.

“We provide inflight connectivity across the whole of Asia,” said Ian Dawkins, CEO of OnAir. “Our unique network of roaming agreements and authorizations from national regulators means OnAir is the leading supplier in the region. We are delighted to be supporting SriLankan Airlines’ drive to break new ground in Sri Lankan aviation.”

sourced:traveldailynews.asia