In-Flight Roaming | Keeping Passengers Connected

In our post-pandemic world there has been an interesting paradigm shift around where people work. The surge in remote and hybrid roles have blurred the lines of what many professionals call their “office,” and the hospitality and travel industries are taking notes.

Provided they have a strong internet connection, remote and hybrid employees are quickly learning that they can work from just about anywhere, a trend that EHL Business School reported in their 2023 outlook.

Those employees want to connect, and stay connected, at home, at work, and when they fly.

In-flight Roaming Bridges the Connectivity Gap

According to ICAO 4.5 billion passengers were carried on scheduled services in 2019. Additionally, according to insights from a Panasonic Avionics Passenger Engagement Metrics Survey, in 2022 nearly all flyers (88%) brought a smartphone on their last flight.

Considering 40% of commercial aircrafts are currently equipped with in-flight connectivity services, there is a big – and growing – appetite for passengers to connect, and stay connected, when they fly, provided that the connection experience was easy and intuitive. In-flight roaming provides the toolset to reduce friction and maximize the number of connected passengers by giving passengers the option to connect using their existing cellular networks.

At Panasonic Avionics we know that this is the step-change required to increase passenger adoption of connectivity services, providing a connection path through their existing mobile subscription, in addition to the portal-based on-board connectivity product.

The Technology is Already Flying

We know that in-flight roaming can help increase in-flight connectivity adoption for two reasons.

• It’s bundled with passengers’ existing mobile packages, giving them more choice in how to pay and connect to the service.
• It’s already flying.

Through the relationships we have with our roaming partners globally we are able to create compelling connectivity options that improve the passenger experience. Recently, United announced that T-Mobile subscribers would have Wi-Fi included on their flights. Additionally, AT&T’s International Day Pass™ has added access to Panasonic Avionics’ in-flight mobile phone service through our wholly owned subsidiary AeroMobile.

AeroMobile has also entered into agreement with Webbing to provide global eSIM/in-flight roaming. Webbing delivers frictionless connectivity to their enterprise customers, providing them a secure, efficient and stable way to connect to the corporate network during their travels in over 150 destinations with one SIM, SKU, Invoice, and Platform. This now includes in-flight connectivity, where Webbing customers can connect to the AeroMobile fleet while above the clouds.

If you’re ready to connect all the passengers on your fleet, and provide a remarkable connectivity experience, contact us to learn more.