Airberlin group has equipped the first two aircraft in its fleet – two A320s, registered D-ABNJ and OE-LEL – with the new ‘airberlin connect’ wi-fi service, based on the eXConnect system supplied by Panasonic Avionics.
The system also allows passengers on short and medium-haul flights to enjoy more than 180 hours of onboard IFE content, including TV series, movies and music, which is available for streaming to their own devices via wi-fi. On long-haul routes, passengers will continue to enjoy the RAVE in-seat entertainment system.
“We will gradually expand the new service to almost the entire fleet,” stated Wolfgang Prock-Schauer, CEO of Airberlin. “Airberlin is the first German airline to offer inflight internet access not only on long-haul flights, but also on short- and medium-haul flights”.
The first two aircraft equipped with airberlin connect will service the new Stuttgart-Abu Dhabi and Vienna-Abu Dhabi routes. The first flight from Stuttgart to Abu Dhabi takes off on 1st December 2014, bringing in-flight internet to passengers on this route for the first time. On the new Vienna-Abu Dhabi connection from Austrian subsidiary NIKI, passengers will be able to use the new on-board wi-fi service from November 24th, 2014.
Airberlin offers various time and data packages for airberlin connect: for 4.90 euros, passengers get online for 30 minutes, including 20MB of data. An hour of internet access, including 50MB of data, costs 8.90 euros. The price includes use of the entertainment selection, which is available for the entire duration of the flight at no additional cost, even after the package time or data limits are used up. Passengers who wish to be online during an entire medium-haul flight can select the 13.90 euro package, which includes 90MB of data, while the Full Flight Package for long-haul flights costs 18.90 euros, and includes 120MB of data. Packages can be paid by credit card via the web browser on passengers’ own mobile device or laptop.
On the new Stuttgart-Abu Dhabi and Vienna-Abu Dhabi connections, passengers can enjoy the entertainment offering free of charge. Internet access during the entire flight to or from Abu Dhabi on these routes costs 13.90 euros, including 90MB of data.
Airberlin plans to complete equipping its fleet within three years.
