Richard Branson’s courage and business savvy are evident throughout his multi-industry conglomerate and how his way of thinking consistently separates him from the crowd. Virgin Atlantic Airways, which is co-owned by Singapore Airlines (49%) have channelled some of Sir Richard’s foresight, becoming one of nine airlines (including Emirates, Oman Air and Royal Jordanian) to offer passengers in-flight mobile calling capabilities.
The service will allow up to six passengers at a time to either receive or make calls at any time excluding when the plane is taking off or landing or within 250 miles of U.S. airspace. The announcement made Tuesday states that at this time only the London to New York route will have the service available. The popular route, which will be serviced by Virgin’s new Airbus A330 airplanes, bridges two of the world’s great cities. The airline currently flies the route five times a day with a plan to add a sixth due to demand for the flight. The service and additional flight are an attempt to differentiate in an extremely competitive industry while also catering to the business patrons who frequent the flight route.
In-flight calling will be made possible by AeroMobile, a firm that is partially owned by Panasonic. Although an airplane’s nature only allows limited bandwidth and thus a limited number of lines, AeroMobile is looking to change and upgrade their offering in the near future. As is, the service will cater exclusively to customers of European telco’s such as O2 and Vodafone along with U.S. provider T-Mobile. Passengers who elect to use the service will not face addition charges from the airline above and beyond the requisite roaming charges that must be applied as individuals travel.
The plan is for the service to be offered in 20 planes by year end, as part of Virgin’s estimated $160 million dollar (CAD) overhaul of the upper class cabin and overall flight experience. The in-flight technology does not stop there however, with the addition of USB slots and better quality touch screen technology for in-flight entertainment.
According to Virgin Atlantic’s CEO Steve Griffiths, the airline also plans to add full WiFi availability on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that they plan to launch in 2014 in an attempt to further cater to the needs of their travellers.
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