Air France, one of Europe’s major airlines, have announced that from July this year it will begin a six-month trial peroid for in-flight mobile phone usage by its passengers. Calls, text messages and the sending of emails will all be tried and tested.
The airline had to abandon plans to launch the-in-flight mobile service last month because of the regulatory certification for the on-board equipment taking longer than expected.
Air France said only one of its A318 Airbus short-haul aircraft (one of the smallest in its fleet) will have the system installed.
For the first three months passengers connectivity will be limited to data services, such as text messaging or sending emails from a BlackBerry or other device.
The last half of the trial will allow passengers to use voice services, making it a worldwide-first for airline passengers making phone calls from their own mobile handsets during a flight .
At the end of each flight during the trial peroid memebrs of the crew will give passengers questionnaires for feedback and comments that can be used by the airline company to make the system as user-friendly and convienent as possible.
"After six months we will make our decision for the entire fleet," said a spokeswoman for Air France .
Other airlines have also been affected by the certification delays such as BMI and Ryanair who’s plans for in-flight mobiles have also been delayed.
UK airline BMI had been due to start a trial service at the end of last year, but a spokesman admitted things had "gone quiet" on their plans, while no-frills airline Ryanair have had to re-schedule their trial plans from this summer to the third quarter of the year.
The state-of-the-art, mobile technology has been developed by OnAir, a joint venture between Airbus and airline industry IT body Sita. The equipment is comprised of technology from Tenzing, the company that pioneered in-flight email, and Inmarsat who will be providing the satellite communications .
Initial costs for the mobile service are expected to be between $2.30 (£1.15) and $2.50 (£1.25) for in-flight calls, while no formal pricing plan has been announced for emails and texts as yet.
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