Indonesian low-fare carrier Citilink will deploy Inmarsat’s GX Aviation in-flight broadband solution on its fleet of 50 Airbus A320 aircraft after firming up a Memorandum of Understanding agreed earlier this year.
Inmarsat will partner with Indonesian wireless technology provider Mahata Aero Teknologi (MAT), as well as Lufthansa Systems and Lufthansa Technik to implement a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) connectivity offering for passengers across Citilink’s fleet.
Installations are expected to start later this year. The antenna fitted will be the fuselage-mounted JetWave package from Honeywell Aerospace.
The MoU was signed earlier this year at AIX 2018 in Hamburg, Germany. Juliandra Nurtjahjo, president and CEO of Citilink, a subsidiary of national flag carrier Garuda, said, “As a modern, digitally-focused airline, it’s imperative that we offer our passengers a world-class in-flight Wi-Fi service. We are confident that the combined strengths of Inmarsat, MAT, Lufthansa Systems and Lufthansa Technik will ensure we deliver gold-standard broadband on-board all of our flights.”
Philip Balaam, president of Inmarsat Aviation, added, “Citilink’s adoption of GX Aviation, and signing of this contract mere months after the MoU, are testament to both the importance of in-flight connectivity to passengers today and Citilink’s confidence in our solution. This partnership also represents a significant milestone for Inmarsat in one of our priority regional markets.”
GX Aviation is the world’s first and only global, high-speed inflight internet service delivered through a wholly-owned and operated network of High-Throughput Satellites (HTS), allowing passengers to browse the internet, stream videos, check social media and so on during flights.
Jan-Peter Gaense, head of passenger experience products and solutions at Lufthansa Systems, added the partnership would “directly support Citilink’s long-term inflight wifi ambitions. In particular, our digital BoardConnect platform’s open architecture and use of modern docker technology will enable a range of e-commerce services, serving as a perfect base to monetise the airline’s inflight wifi.”
Written by: Mark Thomas
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