Going forward, SkyFive will extend its test campaign to other markets and add system capacity as a dimension, to extrapolate how services would perform if 100 and more people would avail them on a regular basis.
LISBON – At World Aviation Festival, SkyFive published the results of a comprehensive inflight Wi-Fi test campaign, which was carried out on 12 European airlines that together represent more than 80% of installed inflight connectivity systems on the single-aisle fleet.
The objectives of the campaign were to firstly benchmark inflight Wi-Fi services in the European market, secondly learn about best practices of airlines in this particular environment, and thirdly develop a holistic assessment methodology that goes far beyond traditional speed test. With less than 30% of aircraft connected, the penetration of inflight Wi-Fi services in Europe significantly lags behind the United States, with shorter flights, lower mobile usage revenues, and a strong Low-Cost Carrier segment being some of the reasons.
Of the 12 airlines selected for the tests, 4 each were equipped with Ka-band SatCom, Air-to-Ground (marketed under the European Aviation Network brand in Europe), and Ku-band SatCom respectively. Passenger experience was assessed in dimensions of service discoverability, purchase and payment options, the process and time to get online, and the quality of various applications. In addition, various technical parameters were captured in a largely automated manner, including latency, downlink and uplink speeds, and the number of connected devices. Some flights generated 10 Gigabytes of test data.
Services differed significantly in properties and price, with lowest and highest results often being a factor of 10 apart, as can be seen from the table below:
Vicky is the co-founder of TravelDailyNews Media Network where she is the Editor-in Chief. She is also responsible for the daily operation and the financial policy. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Tourism Business Administration from the Technical University of Athens and a Master in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Wales.
She has many years of both academic and industrial experience within the travel industry. She has written/edited numerous articles in various tourism magazines.
