Airbus, Delta, OneWeb, Sprint, and Bharti Airtel ("Airtel") have announced the formation of the Seamless Air Alliance, allowing member mobile operators to extend their services into airline cabins.
The Seamless Air Alliance will allow members to use satellite technology, with the same high speed and low latency connectivity from ground to air and back again. The alliance is also intended to significantly reduce costs for everyone involved, while making the process easier for users.
Aiming to attract additional industry operators beyond the five initial members, the alliance plans to eliminate the immense costs and hurdles commonly associated with acquisition, installation and the operation of data access infrastructure by streamlining system integration and certification, providing open specifications for interoperability, increasing accessibility for passengers and enabling simple and integrated billing.
"What if the best internet you ever experienced was in the air? We will enable an affordable and frictionless experience for passengers everywhere," said Greg Wyler, founder and executive chairman of OneWeb. "With the launch of our first production satellites set for later this year, we're one step closer to bridging the global digital divide on land and in the air."
Marc Fontaine, the Airbus digital transformation officer, said easy-to-use, high-speed connectivity is part of the next revolution in aerospace.
"We're excited to create this seamless experience for our airline customers and their passengers. As we showed with our Skywise aviation data platform, Airbus is committed to innovation that creates value across the aviation industry," he said.
Gil West, Delta senior executive vice-president and chief operating officer, said the company is aware of customer expectations for internet connectivity throughout their journeys.
"Our existing partner Gogo will be joining the alliance as Delta develops a system that not only benefits our customers, but the entire airline industry," he said.
Dow Draper, chief commercial officer of Sprint, said the company has invested heavily in its planned 5G network roll-out next year to ensure its customers have the best mobile internet experience possible.
"We're looking forward to enabling customers to experience Sprint's high-speed connectivity in the air, hassle-free," he said.
Gopal Vittal, managing director and chief executive of Bharti Airtel for India and South Asia, said the innovative technology platform will bring seamless connectivity to customers.
"Over 370 million mobile customers across Airtel's global network will be able to enjoy uninterrupted access to high-speed data services even while in-flight," he said.
Airtel is the third-largest mobile operator in the world with operations in 16 countries across Asia and Africa.
"As the market leader in in-flight connectivity, Gogo is excited to join the Seamless Alliance. We look forward to working with the alliance to develop future generations of in-flight connectivity, which will provide airline passengers worldwide with simple, fast and reliable connections," said Michael Small, chief executive of Gogo.
