中国东方航空将提供舱内wi-fi服务
China Eastern Airlines has received approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to provide in-flight Wi-Fi service on 21 airplanes.
中国东方航空获工信部批准在21架航班上提供舱内Wi-Fi服务。
The Shanghai-based carrier becomes China's first airline company to provide Wi-Fi service for both domestic and international flights.
Passengers bound for New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, Beijing and Guangzhou will have access to the Wi-Fi service through a telecommunications satellite.
The flights will begin to provide the service in one month after operational preparations.
The Wi-Fi service will be free in the 21 airplanes at the beginning, but a charge list is now under discussion.
The company plans to install Wi-Fi service equipment in all airplanes by 2017-2018.
Other carriers in China, such as Air China and Hainan Airlines also have rolled out trial services during the past few years.
Industry experts note that the approval for the Wi-Fi service on 21 airplanes is a trial for commercial in-flight Internet service operations in China.
Aviation business insiders say that China has the potential to become the world's largest aviation market, which is likely to create tens of billions of yuan in profit in the aviation Internet business.