APEX Editor's Blog

AeroMobile’s new CEO Kevin Rogers believes the company will significantly expand its customer base during the next year as the rapid-fire growth on inflight connectivity continues unabated. Rogers took the helm of the airborne GSM service provider in March, roughly one year after IFE giant Panasonic Avionics acquired a majority stake in AeroMobile. The AeroMobile [...]

Emirates has confirmed plans to offer Panasonic Avionics’ Global Communications Suite (GCS) – including live television – on its widebodies, in a unique turn of events that will see inflight connectivity rivals OnAir and Panasonic work together. A single Boeing 777 was installed with GCS “before Christmas” and Emirates is “monitoring the service, which includes [...]

Has the regulatory environment ever been as favourable to the inflight use of personal electronic devices (PEDs) than it is today? Probably not. US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) chairman Julius Genachowski seems positively giddy at the prospect of being able to use PEDs during takeoff and landing, and late last year called on the FAA to [...]

Virgin Atlantic’s goal of finding a better partner has come to fruition. Delta Air Lines has agreed to acquire the 49 per cent stake of Virgin Atlantic currently held by Singapore Airlines. The $360 million deal, which is expected to close in late 2013, will also see the two carriers establish a joint venture on [...]

(Updated with additional information from Arinc about the company’s planned evolution to Global Xpress. Read Virgin Atlantic’s comment here.) LONDON: Virgin Atlantic Airways is to become the launch customer for Arinc’s Cabin Connect inflight Wi-Fi solution, after agreeing to fit the solution to its Airbus widebodies, Arinc revealed today. During a press briefing in London [...]

Editor’s note: This article is being posted in real-time somewhere over the North Atlantic using Lufthansa’s FlyNet inflight high-speed Internet service on board an Airbus A340-300 widebody. Lufthansa will soon bring inflight mobile phone capability to passengers, after receiving certification for AeroMobile’s “eXPhone” GSM connectivity system for an aircraft type, the APEX editor’s blog can [...]

BARCELONA, SPAIN: Emirates president Tim Clark is a busy man. When he’s not being asked to explain why Emirates has acquired billions of dollars worth of new Airbus and Boeing aircraft – new as in ‘shrink wrapped’ new – and fending off accusations that the fast-growing carrier has an ‘unfair advantage’ over European competitors, he [...]

Inflight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) giant Panasonic Avionics has acquired a majority stake in AeroMobile, the APEX editor’s blog can exclusively reveal. Panasonic has been a partner to AeroMobile for at least three years, having branded its mobile connectivity hardware as eXPhone, and selling it as part of its Global Communications Suite. “We have worked [...]

Board a flight anywhere in the United States and you will see mobile phones in the hands of most travellers. However, due to a regulatory ban on inflight mobile connectivity, passengers are not permitted to use their devices to make voice calls, use traditional text functionality or access data via GSM or CDMA. The US [...]

AeroMobile is working with partner Panasonic Avionics to bring 3G inflight mobile connectivity to airline passengers, and has secured an undisclosed customer for the service, company CEO Pal Bjordal reveals to the APEX editor’s blog. “We are able to provide our service over Ku-band [satellites], which is currently the only satellite technology that is dimensioned [...]