By Patience Moses Chat
Ethiopian Airlines, Africa’s fastest-growing and largest airline brand, is set to offer advanced, high-speed inflight broadband to passengers onboard its upcoming Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, with Global Xpress (GX) Aviation provided by Inmarsat and selected through the Airbus Airspace Link HBCplus programme.
This was disclosed at the 2023 Aircraft Interiors Expo (AIX), which was held in Hamburg, Germany from 6th to 8th June.
Powered by Inmarsat’s Global Xpress (GX) satellite network, GX Aviation delivers world-class connectivity on every aircraft, on any route, and for every passenger. Airline customers will also benefit from seven more Inmarsat satellite payloads entering service by 2025, increasing its Ka-band network fleet to 12.
This includes two Inmarsat-6s, both of which have already launched, followed by two payloads in highly elliptical orbit, enabling the world’s only commercial mobile broadband service for flights in higher latitudes and across the Arctic. This delivers uninterrupted connectivity on high-elevation routes. Three additional satellites will then launch in geostationary orbit, adding further speed, capacity, and resilience.
Inmarsat, a leading British satellite service provider in its latest Passenger Experience Survey discovered that 97% of airline respondents use their personal devices on flights for entertainment, such as streaming movies and TV shows, keeping up with work, and to stay in touch with family and friends. In addition, 82% of passengers are more likely to rebook with an airline that offers quality inflight Wi-Fi.
The first of Ethiopian Airlines’ Airbus A350-1000 aircraft is set to be delivered in the Third Quarter (Q3) of 2024, with passengers able to benefit from GX Aviation’s world-class connectivity technology of about 50Mbps download speed and 5Mbps upload speed.
The airline will benefit from a more streamlined, efficient order process that will ensure its latest aircraft meet the rapidly growing passenger demand to stay connected while flying. The new service supports the airline’s Vision 2035 Strategy which focuses on expanding its fleets, enhancing its passenger experience and maintaining its leading position in the airline industry.
Commenting on the new developments in the airline, the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Ethiopian Airline, Mr. MesfinTasew said, “as we endeavour to maintain our position as Africa’s number one and among the leading airlines globally, we know one of the key success factors is giving our passengers the best possible onboard experience.
“Connectivity is a crucial part of our services and products; and bringing Inmarsat’s best-in-class GX Aviation service to our passengers, as part of Airbus’ HBCplus programme, is a major step forward. We want to give our passengers the possibility to stream, surf, and chat from thousands of feet in the air, no matter where their route or destination is. Inmarsat’s seamless, truly global inflight connectivity will be vital to deliver this. We look forward to a very successful partnership with Inmarsat and Airbus, now and in the years to come.”
Also, the President of Imarsat Aviation, Niels Steenstrup, said: “We were selected as the first managed services provider (MSP) for the Airbus HBCplus programme last year, with a scope that includes connectivity, digital portal services and ISP capability.
“The fact that we have already been selected by two leading airlines is a great achievement and we are excited about delivering our award-winning GX Aviation inflight broadband to Ethiopian Airlines’ passengers starting from next year. This will enable them to stream videos, browse the internet, shop online, enjoy social media and more, all from the comfort of their seats and using their personal devices.”
The Vice President (VP) of Airbus cabin and cargo programme, Andre Schneider, also expressed gratitude to Ethiopian Airlines for the confidence they placed in Airbus to devise and integrate enhanced inflight capabilities for their passengers to experience.
Meanwhile, Air New Zealand has announced the introduction of weight check for all its passengers.
In normal aviation protocol, luggage is weighed, cargoes are also weighed. But what happens when an airline begins to weigh its passengers before boarding? Air New Zealand (ANZFF) has announced that it would start doing just that as part of a pilot programme requested by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority.
Themed “International Passenger Weight Survey,” the programmewill ask travelers traveling out of New Zealand through the Auckland airport to step on a scale and weigh themselves along with any carry-on baggage.
The exercise, which started on 29th May will ask passengers traveling on its international network to weigh-in before takeoff. This will enable the airline to ascertain important averages regarding passenger weight and is also essential to the safe and efficient operation of the aircraft.
The safety measure which has been implemented by the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority (NZCAA) is designed to be done every couple of years to gather data on passenger weight, the latest survey will run till July 2, 2023.
According to Alastair James, the Airline’s Load Control Improvement Specialist, “for safety reasons, we need to know the weight of all items onboard the aircraft.”
James, however, noted that the weight scales will not display the weight of passengers to any staff as it will be fed directly into a computer and recorded anonymously along with thousands of other passengers.
Air New Zealand also explained that the weight check excise is entirely voluntary and is meant to give both the airline and industry watchdogs an approximation of how much weight is aboard the flight overall.
Those who do choose to participate will not even learn their weight themselves as the scale will submit it to a data file and not display it to either the passenger or the check-in agent.
The announcement that Air New Zealand would be weighing customers has generated a fair bit of outrage and misunderstanding over who would be weighed and how as well as online trolls on TikTok and other social media platforms.
Valuechain findings revealed that a local Polynesian airline known as Samoa Air, which was launched in 2012, attempted charging higher prices for customers with higher body weight, calling it “the fairest way of travelling.”
The airline asked passengers to pay their airfare for international flights by multiplying each kilogram of their body weight by $2.40 in the local Samoan currency. Although the airline’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chris Langton, told journalists that passengers got used to the trend after the initial shock, but the airline went out of business a year after it was launched.
As inappropriate as it may appear, the weight-check of luggage, as well as that of passengers could be a good safety tip for airline operators and also for passengers.