Lufthansa Group is equipping its short and medium-haul aircraft with broadband internet on three of its airlines this year. The plan is to fully equip all aircraft in the Airbus A220/320 family operated by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and SWISS – in total more than 150 aircraft. The installation of the system will begin at all airlines from Q4 2024 and will be completed within around two years.
New is that Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines are now offering their guests unlimited free messaging on aircraft already equipped with internet access. Travellers can send and receive as many messages as they like on their own smartphone or tablet free of charge during the flight. The prerequisite for using this service is logging into FlyNet with a Miles & More service card number or with an email address registered with the Lufthansa Group Travel ID. For all other onboard internet packages, such as the faster premium access, the price was reduced by almost 50%.
Lufthansa Group commissioned Viasat with the technology and service for equipping more than 150 additional aircraft. To date, internet access on more than 200 aircraft in the Lufthansa Group’s A320 family has been based purely on a satellite connection (Ka-band). On the newly-equipped aircraft, the internet connection is provided using a hybrid technology called EAN (European Aviation Network). An S-band satellite provides Europe-wide coverage, while supplementary ground components from Deutsche Telekom, terrestrial radio towers with 4G LTE technology, provide additional capacity.
