[Satellite News 02-28-11] TAM Airlines, which operates direct flights to 45 cities in Brazil and 18 cities in South America, the United States and Europe, has beefed up its connectivity options thanks to an expanded deal with OnAir, an inflight service connectivity service provider.
    TAM will install OnAir’s on-board connectivity system in 26 aircraft, allowing passengers to telephone, text, and browse the Internet using their own BlackBerry’s or Smartphones. Through agreements with companies in Brazil and abroad, TAM’s network will now include an additional 89 airports in Brazil and 87 international destinations, including Asia. The connected aircraft are expected to start flying in the second half of this year.
    José Nürmberger Racowski, business unit manager, TAM Airlines told Satellite News that the expansion of contract with OnAir will enable the service to cover nearly all the 45 destinations served by TAM Airlines in Brazil. “Since October 2010, an Airbus A321 airplane of the company equipped with the OnAir system performs flights between six Brazilian cities (São Paulo/Guarulhos, Recife, Natal, Fortaleza, Salvador and Porto Alegre). With good acceptance of the on-board connectivity services, we noticed that our customers wish and need to be connected during the flight and therefore we decided to invest in expanding the number of airplanes with the OnAir system.”
    The service, which uses the Inmarsat SwiftBroadband satellites, allows customers to connect to a GPRS network, with their own GSM handsets. The mechanism offered by TAM allows up to eight passengers to use cell-phones for telephone calls at the same time, according to Racowski. “For data and SMS sending, there are no restrictions. The devices work in international roaming and begin to capture signal as soon as the airplane reaches an altitude of 4,000 meters. Worldwide, the system has been used in more than 150,000 flights to 356 cities, connecting passengers from 83 countries with roaming agreements with 250 cell-phone operators.”
    Racowski said there were a number of technical challenges that the airline had to face before offering these services to passengers. To use the OnAir system, TAM received technical approval from the Brazilian National Agency of Civil Aviation (ANAC) to have the on-board cell-phone system installed in the aircraft and operational certification by Anatel (the Brazilian National Telecommunications Agency). The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) also certified the system and its use is now regulated by the European Union.
    While TAM Airlines won’t generate any revenues based on offering these services, Racowski believes they can become an important competitive differentiator. “The use of connectivity services on-board is charged directly by the mobile network provider to the passenger’s phone bill. But we believe that in future the on-board phone service can be a factor that will lead more customers to choose TAM. It will indirectly contribute to increase our revenues. We believe that connectivity is part of the experience on-board and be the first airline in the Americas to provide this facility is a competitive advantage in an expanding market. Our expectation is that more people are delighted by the experience of flying with us and return,” he said.