Passengers on Oman Air long-haul flights are enjoying the freedom of staying connected with Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband internet service, the airline claims.
The Passenger Experience conference – held in Hamburg, Germany, on the eve of the 2013 Aircraft Interiors Expo – heard that customers are more than happy with the speed of Inmarsat's L-band satellite service, provided by partner company OnAir.
“The bandwidth is more than enough for their needs,” said Dawood Saud Al Raisi, Oman Air's Senior Manager for Engineering Technical Projects.
“Our passengers like to use social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, which are relatively light applications in terms of the capacity required. They also like to send emails.”
He added: “The only complaints we get are when we have to filter content or switch off connectivity when overflying a sensitive military area.”
Al Raisi added that Oman Air passengers are able to use their mobile phones to send and receive text messages, emails (including attachments), and to make and receive mobile phone calls during flights.
They can also use laptops, personal electronic devices and the seat-back inflight entertainment screen to access the internet and use webmail and instant messaging.
Oman Air was the launch airline for OnAir's integrated GSM and inflight Wi-Fi services when they were fitted to its Airbus A330s in March 2010.
