Dubai-based international airline Emirates will try to attract more long-haul business customers by providing a regular, airborne wireless laptop service.
Emirates will launch the new feature by the end of March on all of its new Airbus A340-500s, which began operating late last year on non-stop services between Dubai and Sydney.
The airline, which runs daily flights from Dubai to both Sydney and Melbourne, said it had signed an agreement yesterday with Seattle-based technology company Tenzing Communications.
"The new Emirates product is the world's first deployment of Wi-Fi e-mail laptop connectivity in regularly scheduled commercial aviation," Emirates said.
"It will be offered alongside the seatback e-mail and SMS already available on Emirates' A340-500s which let passengers send out e-mails and SMSs during the flight, using an on-screen keyboard."
With the new wireless laptop system, passengers can use their own e-mail accounts, including corporate e-mail, in a secure environment.
The ultra-long-range A340-500 will be the first aircraft to include a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) certified for passengers' own Wi-Fi enabled laptop computers.
Dial-up connections to the onboard server also will be available from passenger seats.
"The seatback e-mail and SMS products we already provide are very popular with passengers who are not carrying a laptop," Emirates vice chairman Maurice Flanagan said.
"The Tenzing service is targeted at those, including business travellers, who like to keep in touch with their regular e-mail accounts on Wi-Fi."
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