Posted: 08th Sep, 2004 By: MarkJ
UK airline British Airways (BA) has shelved plans to provide in-flight Wi-Fi broadband Internet access on its planes, claiming the technology to be too immature and expensive:
CIO Paul Coby said in-flight connectivity will have a role to play in the future but in the meantime he is happy to wait and see how the Lufthansa rollout goes.
Coby said the technology is likely to become mainstream only when the aircraft manufacturers include it in new planes as it is too expensive to retrospectively fit to an existing fleet.
"If you have to put your aircraft on the ground for 10 days it is going to be very expensive," he said. "It is up to Airbus and Boeing to integrate entertainment into the planes."No doubt BA's current financial troubles have helped to play a part in the decision, although the airline isn't ruling it out for the future. More @
Silicon.