Three major Chinese airlines to provide in-flight WiFi services

Three major Chinese airlines, including China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Air China, have been approved to provide in-flight Wi-Fi services.

包括中国东方航空公司、中国南方航空公司和中国国际航空公司的三家主要航空公司已获批准，将在航班上提供wifi服务。

Passengers on these airlines won’t have long to wait before they can log on and stay plugged-in during their flights.

这些航空公司的乘客，很快就可以在乘坐航班期间登陆并连接wifi。

China Eastern Airlines has become the first Chinese carrier to provide Wi-Fi services on both domestic and international flights.

东方航空公司已成为中国第一家在国内和国际航班上提供wifi服务的航空公司。

According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the carrier is allowed to use the AsiaSat-6 satellite for Wi-Fi services on its 21 aircraft from June 5.

据工信部消息，从6月5日开始，将允许21架航空公司的飞机使用亚洲6号卫星提供的wifi服务。

The services are expected to be offered in a month as the airline clears up several formalities ahead of the launch.

由于航空公司需要在实施前办理好相关手续，wifi服务可能在一个月之后才能提供。

Zhang Chi, deputy director of the company’s transition department, explains what this means for the airline.

该公司运输部门副主任张弛解释了这对航空公司的意义。

"According to our market research, over 86 percent passengers will take flights with internet services as a priority.

“根据我们的市场调查，超过86%的乘客认为，航班上的互联网服务很重要。

So providing wifi service is an important strategy for the company to attract passengers, and that’s why we’ve decided to make this a standard service in our entire fleet.

因此，提供wifi以吸引更多乘客是公司的重要战略，这也是我们将这一标准服务应用到所有航班中的原因。

To make it happen, over 70 aircraft will be modified to install the necessary equipment before 2017."

要实现这样的目标，有超过70架飞机将在2017年以前进行改进，加装必要的设备。”

After the installation is completed, through the AsiaSat-6 satellite, airplanes in the sky can get connected with network devices in base stations on the ground.

安装完成后，空中的飞机可以通过亚洲6号卫星与地面基站的网络设备连接。

China Southern Airlines’ senior engineer Mi Jisheng says the state-to-the-art technology enables air passengers to experience faster wifi service on plane than even at home.

中国南方航空公司高级工程师米吉胜认为，依靠先进的技术，可使空中乘客享受到比家中更快速的wifi服务。

Currently, American Airlines, Qatar Airlines and many other foreign airlines offer wi-fi services on flights, with charges ranging from several US dollars to over twenty dollars.

目前，美国航空、卡塔尔航空和许多其他外国航空公司都在其航班上提供了wifi上网服务，收费从几美元到二十多美元不等。

However, Zhang Chi with China Eastern Airlines says their service charges are expected to be free.

然而，中国东方航空公司的张弛介绍，预计东航将免费提供该服务。

With the commercialization of the service, passengers on plane can also enjoy a wide range of duty-free goods.

随着服务的商业化，飞机上的乘客还可以享受到更多的免税商品。

Experts predict the Wi-Fi service could bring about new business opportunities, especially in social media and data services.

专家预测wifi服务可能会带来新商机，尤其是在社交媒体和数据服务等方面。

Last year, around 390 million domestic Chinese passengers took flights and spent 1 billion hours in the air.

去年，约有3.9亿国内乘客在航班上度过了10亿小时。

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来源:ChinaDaily官网爱语吧作者:孙梦光