It’s taken a long time, but it seems IAG Group (including British Airways) are finally going to press ahead and install WiFi on their planes, provisioned by Gogo.
British Airways Boeing 747-400 at New York JFK – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
This will be first customer that Gogo has snagged in Europe for the 2KU product.
Gogo will be supplying IAG with 2KU to be installed aboard:
- British Airways (118 aircraft)
- Aer Lingus (4 x Boeing 757s)
- Iberia (15 x long haul aircraft)
Note, that IAG short-haul products (British Airways, Iberia, Vueling or Aer Lingus) have not been earmarked for 2KU installation (or any other in-air WiFi product bar a few test planes).
Aer Lingus and Iberia operate A330 fleets with Panasonic GCS installed (the Iberia product is provisioned by OnAir – a product I had a brief look at).
I’ve written about Gogo’s 2KU technology before – with it launching with Aeromexico, and recently Delta taking on an order to equip 600 mainline planes with 2KU.
Gogo 2KU Antenna – Image, Economy Class and Beyond.
Installation plans call for the first aircraft – a British Airways Boeing 747-400 – to have a plane installed with 2KU in early 2017. Aer Lingus and Iberia will have 2KU fitted aboard their 757s (Aer Lingus) and A330-300 (Iberia) later in 2017.
The breakdown of the installs looks like this:
British Airways Boeing 747-400 18 British Airways Boeing 777-200 46 British Airways Boeing 777-300 12 British Airways Boeing 787-8 8 British Airways Boeing 787-8/9 22 British Airways Airbus A380-800 12 Iberia Airbus A340-600 7 Iberia Airbus A330-300 8 Aer Lingus Boeing 757-200 4 TOTAL 137 Data: IAG A340 installation is subject to confirmation.
Willie Walsh of IAG seems happy, stating:
“This state of the art technology will provide greater bandwidth, faster speed and broader coverage to our airlines’ customers. Global connectivity is something they demand and we are providing high-quality connections with innovative technology solutions to improve the travel experience”
It has been a long road for IAG to choose a solution for their fleet – and it shows with competitors installing in-flight internet access products on their planes.
With other providers taking their time (be it launching satellites, building networks or otehrwise) – Gogo has stolen the march and are delivering products to customers.
IAG group is aiming to have 90% of their longhaul fleet with high speed connectivity – and for a lot of travellers – it can’t come soon enough.
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