Boeing is among six new members of a collaborative group aiming to make inflight mobile connectivity standard.
The aircraft manufacturer is joined by Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, Panasonic Avionics Corporation, Safran, and Riverbed Technology in the Seamless Air Alliance, which aims to enable passengers to “board any flight, on any airline, anywhere in the world and use their own devices to automatically connect to the internet in the air as simply as they do on the ground”.
The alliance was created by founder members Airbus, Delta, OneWeb and Bharti Airtel.
Jack Mandala, Seamless Air Alliance chief executive, said: “We are particularly excited to have new airline members join the alliance. Ultimately, it is the airlines who will carry the torch for the implementation of any global standards for inflight connectivity.
“The Seamless Air Alliance is where industry players come together to drive the metrics and standards needed to deliver on the connectivity experience passengers have been craving.”
David Scotland, principal product manager for inflight entertainment & connectivity at Alaska Airlines, said: “Our guests are returning to our flights with the expectation that they’ll be able to complete the same tasks they do on the ground while in the air.
“At Alaska, we’re passionate about continuing to elevate the guest experience and excited by the work Seamless Air Alliance is doing to help push the industry ahead and set end-user standards of performance versus the more primitive hardware-based metrics that ignore the end-user’s expectation.”