SITAONAIR

SITAONAIR is a company that enables airline passengers to use their smart devices including mobile phones and laptops for calls, text messaging, emails and Internet browsing.

SITAONAIR
TypePrivate
IndustryTelecommunication, Technology, Aviation
FateAirbus sold its 33% in OnAir to SITA making it a subsidiary of SITA.
PredecessorOnAir
Headquarters
Geneva
,
Switzerland
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
David Lavorel (CEO)
Websitewww.sitaonair.aero

The company is a fully owned subsidiary of SITA, originally incorporated as OnAir as a joint venture with Airbus in February 2005. In February 2013, Airbus sold its 33% final stake to SITA.[1] The company is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and sales offices in London, Singapore and Dubai.

Services

SITAONAIR offers services which aircraft operators can use together or separately:

  • Flight Operations or Flight planning is the process of producing a flight plan to describe a proposed aircraft flight.
  • Internet OnAir is a Wi-Fi network which offers Internet access at broadband speed to passengers.[2]
  • Mobile OnAir is a cellphone service which offers mobile telephony, SMS and narrowband Internet access (56 kbit/s) and so allows passengers to make and receive calls on their mobile phones, send and receive text messages and emails and use the Internet. Airlines can restrict usage of these services at discretion enabling them to ban voice calls and allow only SMS and Internet access instead. Lufthansa is one airline following this restrictive approach due to passengers' alleged desire for quietness during flights.[3]
  • Link OnAir is a managed network service that allows airlines to use the IP-based satellite connection used by the aforementioned services for other applications, such as supplying in-flight entertainment systems with news content or Internet access and providing mission-critical information and communication services to air crews.[2]
  • OnAir Play' combines inflight connectivity with films, TV, live news, music, games, magazines and newspapers. Passengers have access to a full range of content including live news and sport, updated throughout the flight and can buy destination-based goods and services to ease their arrival.[4]

All three services share the same satellite connection to the ground. SITAONAIR (then OnAir) was the first company to provide integrated GSM and inflight wifi services, with Oman Air as the launch airline in March 2010.[5] SITAONAIR’s technology has been certified for use on many types of aircraft – both private and commercial jets including Boeing and Airbus – for short and long haul. In most cases, it is available for linefit or retrofit.[6]

Inmarsat SwiftBroadband (L band)

A satellite data unit (SDU) manufactured by Thales and branded TopConnect establishes a backhaul link to the ground through Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband geostationary satellite constellation operating in the L band around 1500 MHz which allows the use of electronically steerable antennas mounted atop the aircraft fuselage and encased within a fiberglass, RF-transparent radome that have a low profile compared to systems operating in the Ku band or Ka band which today still require mechanically steerable antennas with a significantly higher profile. Thus drag and fuel costs are reduced allowing economical operation even on smaller aircraft like business or regional jets. Inmarsat's SwiftBroadband system covers much of the planet except for the polar regions above −82 and below +82 degrees latitude and currently provides symmetric data rates of up to 432 kbit/s per channel dependent on signal quality and overall load on the satellite's spotbeam serving the corresponding geographical area. Currently the Thales SDU can bond two channels resulting in a maximum bandwidth of 864 kbit/s.[7]

Inmarsat GlobalXpress (Ka band)

SITAONAIR was appointed as distribution partner for Inmarsat's Global Xpress service in November 2011.[8]

See also

References
  1. Mary Kirby (11 February 2013). "Exclusive: Airbus exits inflight connectivity business with sale of OnAir stake to SITA". APEX. Archived from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
  2. "Global Distribution Systems & Technology Partners". Archived from the original on 2014-07-27. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  3. Focus (22 September 2011). "Lufthansa: Ja zur SMS im Flieger, nein zu Telefonaten". Focus. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  4. "Philippine Airlines to be launch customer for OnAir Play". Archived from the original on 2015-09-24. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  5. "Oman Air launches full mobile phone and wi-fi connectivity aboard new Airbus A330s". Archived from the original on 2014-07-24. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  6. "The new inflight 'must have': An interview with OnAir CEO Ian Dawkins". Archived from the original on 2014-07-28. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  7. "Thales launches connectivity demonstrator suite". Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2019-11-15.
  8. OnAir (29 November 2011). "OnAir selected by Inmarsat as Global Xpress Distribution Partner" (PDF). OnAir. Retrieved 14 July 2012.

Bibliography
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