Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines are now offering fast Internet surfing on many of their short-haul and medium-haul flights. Passengers can choose between three service packages for 3, 7, or 12 euros. The user-friendly service login portal is operated on Deutsche Telekom's Wi-Fi platform.
Limitless surfing and streaming in the European skies is already available on many Lufthansa and Austrian Airlines flights. Access to the Internet will also be available on many Eurowings flights in just a few weeks' time. 19 Lufthansa, 31 Austrian Airlines and 26 Eurowings A320 planes have been equipped with the required Wi-Fi technology and satellite antennas. And more are being added all the time. The new high-speed technology was successfully tested on Lufthansa und Austrian Airlines flights in the past few months.
Obtaining Internet access is easy; passengers simply connect via Wi-Fi using their own mobile devices and can use anything from messaging services to browsing to video streaming. Customers can choose one of three service packages. Lufthansa offers FlyNet Message for three euros, FlyNet Surf for seven euros, and FlyNet Stream for 12 euros per leg. Austrian Airlines offers comparable packages for the same prices under the names myAustrian FlyNet Message, myAustrian FlyNet Surf, and myAustrian FlyNet Stream. The packages can be purchased using a credit card or payment services such as PayPal. And soon passengers will be able to pay using miles or through roaming partners.
The Internet service offered by the Lufthansa Group airline companies and their technology partner Inmarsat is based on the latest broadband satellite technology (Ka band) and offers seamless, reliable coverage on short-haul and medium-haul flights through Inmarsat's Global Xpress (GX) network. Deutsche Telekomk is Inmarsast's ISP and partner.
The Group has been working on solutions to enable surfing above the clouds on short-haul and medium-haul flights for some time now. Since the introduction of “WiFi-Inflight” on Lufthansa long-haul flights in 2010, Deutsche Telekom has established partnerships with 13 airlines which now offer the Internet service, too – Aer Lingus, Air France, China Airlines, Etihad, EVA, Garuda Indonesia, Japan Airlines, KLM, Lufthansa, Malindo Air, Scoot, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic.