PAL offers phone, Internet service

MANILA, Philippines - National flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) has tied up with Munich-based TriaGnoSys and Geneva-based OnAir to offer phone call and Internet services for its long haul passengers.

PAL president and chief operating officer Ramon S. Ang said the company became the first local airline to offer such service to passengers after it was made available in its Boeing 777-300 ER during the Manila to Vancouver flight last July 9.

“Allowing our passengers to call and surf the web while flying is another first only a legacy carrier like PAL can offer. This new service is part of our strategy to provide only the best to our customers,” Ang said.

Ang said the special connectivity equipment would also be fitted in all its Boeing 777 as well as Airbus A330-343 aircraft.

With the service, PAL passengers could now make phone calls and browse the Internet while in flight with the installation of OnAir cutting-edge connectivity equipment on PAL’s long-range aircraft.

PAL iN AiR was made possible with the installation of the first inflight connectivity hardware called GSMConneX on its PAL Boeing 777-300ER aircraft. The GSMConneX equipment was supplied by German-owned TriaGnoSys while the GSM and WiFi connection was supplied by OnAir.

TriaGnoSys managing director Axel Jahn said the GSMConneX platform was designed to host a wide range of software application modules aside from connectivity including entertainment and non-flight-critical cockpit applications.

 â€œPAL is the first GSMConneX commercial airline customer. We designed our hardware and software portfolio to be highly flexible, so we were able to move very quickly to meet the airline’s specific requirements, which in this case included the addition of WiFi capability,” Jahn stressed.

PAL is looking at mounting flights to various countries in Europe after the European Union lifted a ban that was imposed in March 2010 preventing Philippine carriers from entering the European air space after the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) complied with international air safety standards.

In July last year, rival Cebu Air Inc. (Cebu Pacific) of tycoon John L. Gokongwei Jr. announced a tie up with OnAir to provide internet service to its short and long haul flights. However, the project has yet to materialize.

SMC through San Miguel Equity Investments Inc. (SMEII)  infused $500 million to acquire a 49 percent stake in PAL Holding Inc’s Trustmark Holdings in April last year.

Since the entry of the diversified conglomerate, PAL embarked on a massive re-fleeting program aimed at acquiring 100 new aircraft.

PAL entered into a $7 billion contract with EADS Group in August last year for the acquisition of 54 Airbus aircraft consisting of 34 A321ceo, 10 A321neo, and 10 A330-300s and another $2.5 billion to exercise an option to acquire 10 more A330 aircraft last September.