TEL AVIV (Reuters) – El Al Israel Airlines plans to start offering high-speed Internet services on long-haul routes to and from Tel Aviv beginning in June, the company said on Wednesday.
Israel’s national carrier would become one of just five airlines to offer Boeing’s Connexion service, which allows passengers to send and read e-mail, chat, shop and stream audio and video at 35,000 feet using their own laptop computers with a Wi-Fi card installed.
El Al will be the first carrier to offer the service from Israel.
The airline said in a statement it was investing about $3 million starting in June to alter its eight Boeing 747-400 and 777 aircraft — which serve its North American, Far East, London and Paris routes — to accommodate the Internet service.
The cost to passengers would be $10 to $30 depending on how long they surf. El Al said the surfing speed would be between that of ISDN and DSL, or around 200 kilobits per second.
A Boeing spokesman said Israel was an important market for the company and that it spent a lot of time trying to convince El Al to sign up for the Connexion service. Boeing is also trying to persuade El Al to keep an all-Boeing fleet when it next buys new aircraft.
In late 2004, El Al became a privately-controlled company when Knafaim-Arkia Holdings became the largest shareholder at 40 percent. The government still owns 30 percent.
In addition to El Al, Germany’s Lufthansa, Scandinavia’s SAS, Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways currently offer the Connexion service, which requires airlines to install satellite antennas on top of airplanes.
Singapore Airlines, China Airlines, Korean Air and Asiana have also announced their intent to install Connexion on their long-haul routes.
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February 17, 2005 at 9:04 pm