SITAONAIR

Incorporated in February 2005, OnAir is a joint venture with SITA and Airbus. It also included technology from Tenzing Communications which merged its operations into the new company. OnAir is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has operations in Seattle, London and Montreal. It was announced that in 2007 the Airbus A318 fleet of Air France, all TAP Portugal Airbus A320 and all Ryanair airplanes will have trials of this service. Air France trial started on December 17 2007 in Europe. Since then, TAP Portugal started its trials in a single A319.

Services

OnAir services enable passengers to use their own portable electronic devices, including laptop computers, mobile phones and smartphones, as well as the airline’s in-seat equipment, to communicate inflight, just as they do on the ground. The services are designed for both Airbus and Boeing aircraft.

This new service is limited to use the Inmarsat Satellites, with high speed services using the broadband satellite receivers from Inmarsat's fourth-generation (4G) system. However, the satellites were not launched until March 2005 ( I4 F1 ), November 2005 ( I4 F2 ) and planned April 2008 for the final Pacific Ocean Region, I4 F3.

OnAir is picked by Kingfisher Airlines to provide in-flight mobile phone and internet services for its longhaul flights, starting Mid 2009