Sleepless in shuttle

SINGAPORE – Koh Boon Pin had a deadline to beat. Returning from a seminar in Penang, Malaysia last Sunday, he wanted to write a story on the latest trends in aviation for the next day’s issue of The Straits Times.

No problem, he told himself. He did the story on his laptop and sent it via e-mail to his newspaper. And he did it while on board a plane that was cruising at 30,000 feet.

In-flight e-mail is the newest thing being offered by Asian carriers to business travelers nowadays. Singapore Airlines, for one, has equipped one of its Boeing 777s with the technology to allow passengers to send and receive e-mails and even browse Internet content while flying over the Pacific Ocean.

Michael Tan, SIA’s executive vice president, said their e-mail and Internet browsing services will be extended to more than 55 aircraft over the next 14 months. And what should excite travelers, he pointed out, is that these services will be offered even to those in the Economy Class.

SIA is investing S$300 million (about P7.8 billion) to create what it calls "CyberCabin" which will also offer interactive gaming (including mahjong) and DVD movies to passengers.

"Our WISEMEN entertainment system has become wiser," he said. "Soon, our passengers can choose from 50 DVD movies and 60 hours of short features as well as 100 CD albums to play and replay at whim," he said.

The WISEMEN system will use a 288 GB server on board each aircraft.

Big prospects

Potential revenues for in-flight Internet and e-mail services are estimated to reach $25 billion by 2005, making Singapore Airlines and other carriers salivate.

Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific was the first Asian airline to announce a move to integrate these services with its flights. It is expected, however, to roll out the system not earlier than June.

In other continents, it was Air Canada and Virgin Atlantic which have taken the lead in this aspect. These two carriers are now offering e-mail services to First Class and Business Class passengers.

A survey last year by the International Air Transport Association showed e-mail as topping the eight in-flight conveniences sought after by business travelers. The other seven were real-time Internet, in-flight phones, power sockets for computers, intranet, stock market information, fax and connecting passenger information.

Those polled said they also want to use their own mobile computers and phones while in flight.

But how do passengers send and receive e-mails?

E-mails are sent to airplanes via ground transmitters or, if the planes are over an ocean, by satellites. Tenzing Global (www.tenzing.com), a company based in Seattle, Washington which developed the SIA and Cathay Pacific systems, said messages are sorted by an onboard computer server then routed to passengers.

"To overcome slow transmission rates, the messages are broken into packets of four or five graphs, which are faster to transmit. If the transmission is interrupted, only one packet has to be repeated," said Tenzing CEO Robin Bromley-Martin.

The passengers of SIA Flight SQ30 to Los Angeles, California last Sunday were able to use their personal e-mail accounts by simply plugging a cable into a socket in their seats.

They were even able to send and receive color pictures at 33.6 Kbps, and the in-seat power systems ensured that they did not find their online activities limited by the constraints of battery life.

The services are offered free up to September when SIA expects to finalize the rates it will charge passengers. The airline is looking at about S$1.40 (P37.80) for a 50-word e-mail while it has yet to come up with a figure for Internet surfing.

Limited content

Tenzing said the in-flight Internet access will still be limited to about 35,000 webpages which come pre-loaded before each flight, with customized content and business-focused portals.

Most of the pages will be loaded on board before take-off from some 80 content providers, although updates are received every 15 minutes during the flight for time-sensitive information.

"The typical contents are news, weather and hotel details relating to the destination," said Bromley-Martin. "We’ll have sports, entertainment and other sites, too, depending on the demand."

The Tenzing CEO said people will have to wait before they can have a real-time in-flight Internet experience since such would entail heavy investment on the part of the airline.

To be able to provide real-time surfing, he explained, the airline will have to invest in an expensive satellite system on each aircraft. "Right now, no airline would do it without an assured demand," he said.

What airlines around the world seem to be interested in more these days is Internet presence. Every airline maintains a website and many are already accepting bookings through them.

Singapore Airlines, for example, is investing more than S$700 million over the next three years to link its customers, suppliers and staff under one expanded site.

"We want our customers to reach us anywhere, anytime and on any device," said Walter Lee, SIA’s vice president for e-commerce.

Lee pointed out that soon, SIA customers will be able to make a booking, get a virtual ticket and boarding pass and check the status of their flight through their PC or mobile phone.

"We now have 75 developers working full-time on this project," he said. "We really want to make this work. There are still only a few customers who go to us through our website (www.singaporeair. com). But we want our store ready when the majority starts coming."