• Home
• /
• Business

Etihad to have wireless Internet by year-end

ABU DHABI — Etihad Airways, the national carrier of the UAE, will provide onboard wireless internet on selected routes to Europe before the end of the year.

Speaking on Wednesday at the World Broadband Forum in Paris, Etihad CEO James Hogan said: “I can tell you that Etihad will have two aircraft with operational onboard Internet by December this year, and five aircraft by March 2012.”

“Three of those five aircraft will be Airbus A330-300s, which will operate between Abu Dhabi and cities like Frankfurt, Geneva, London, Munich and Paris. And we are right at the point now of settling on a fleet-wide connectivity solution for the years to come,” he added. “Perhaps the biggest challenge is to stay in synch on this incredibly fast and exciting journey into the future.”

Five years in France

Meanwhile, Etihad is celebrating five years of its non-stop services between Abu Dhabi and Paris.

The airline commenced operations to the French capital in May 2006, and since then has carried more than 770,000 travellers and nearly 51,500 tonnes of cargo on the route. The route has enjoyed average passenger loads of 75 per cent over its first five years and has grown to 77 per cent so far in 2011.

· business@khaleejtimes.com