Oct 11
13
Civil Aviation Authority approves an application by technology groups WirelessG and Row 44 to install in- flight Wi-Fi enabling equipment on board South African commercial aircraft.
PASSENGERS will for the first time be able to access internet and e-mail on local flights after the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) approved an application by technology groups WirelessG and Row 44 to install in- flight Wi-Fi enabling equipment on board South African commercial aircraft.
The new service is likely to come into effect in February. However, passengers will still not be able to make cellphone calls.
Subash Devkaran, senior manager for aircraft certification at the CAA, said yesterday the service would be available on all devices that could connect to the internet via Wi-Fi. “Cellphones will only connect to the network using the Wi-Fi signal whilst the GSM signal is switched off.
“Phone calls using GSM and connections to the internet using GSM would therefore not be possible.”
Low-cost carrier Mango will be the first to offer the service, CEO Nico Bezuidenhout said yesterday.
Gidon Novick, CEO of Comair — whose stable includes British Airways in SA and kulula.com — said: “It’s inevitable that we will have it on board our flights; it’s just about getting it at an affordable level.”
South African Airways spokeswoman Dileseng Koetle said “tablet PCs will be (tested) on a number of intra-Africa flights … (followed by) a phased approach in implementation for the rest of our aircraft.”
Rodney James, CEO of 1time , said that “for a low-cost airline, it’s cost-prohibitive”.