Specifically, the in-flight internet connection service via wifi will be deployed on wide-body aircraft. Vietnam Airlines will deploy this service from October 10, 2019 on 4 of its A350-900 aircraft and will proceed to deploy it on other wide-body aircraft. The first 4 aircraft equipped with the wifi system are those that regularly operate on routes from Vietnam to Northeast Asia. At the same time, these 4 aircraft will also operate a number of domestic routes.
This service of Vietnam Airlines will allow passengers to perform simple tasks such as surfing the net, sending and receiving emails, and texting via OTT applications. According to the airline representative, the access speed of this service will be limited, not as fast as ground wifi.
According to Mr. Nguyen Nam Tien, Deputy Head of Information Technology Department of Vietnam Airlines, there is no official price yet, but it is expected that Vietnam Airlines will divide the wifi service into many packages equivalent to the price of international data roaming service abroad, from 8-10 USD/package due to the high cost of satellite connection.
In the near future, Vietnam Airlines will expand its wifi service to its entire A350 fleet. At the same time, the airline plans to research, invest, and install wifi transmitters suitable for its Boeing and A321 fleet in the next few years, and eventually have wifi service available on all of its wide-body aircraft.
