Philippine Airlines becomes first airline for new technology

A Philippine Airlines (PAL) Boeing 777-300ER jet that has been fitted with TriaGnoSys’ inflight GSMConneX connectivity hardware was officially released today, making PAL the first to offer TriaGnoSys’ inflight GSM and Wi-Fi services.

GSMConnex will also be installed in all of PAL’s B777 and Airbus A330-343 aircraft.

With GSMConneX, PAL passengers will get to enjoy onboard cellphone calls and Wi-Fi connection.

GSMConneX is available as a retrofit option, with Mobile OnAir and Internet OnAir services. OnAir is Philippine Airlines’ GSM and Wi-Fi service provider.

GSMConneX was originally intended to power inflight GSM and TriaGnoSys has now expanded it to include Wi-Fi. It incorporates the hardware and software parts for both the aircraft and ground segments. The airborne hardware consists of only two lightweight and small units, combined with wireless access points and a cabin control screen. TriaGnoSys is responsible for supplying GSMConneX itself, as well as integrating the other third party hardware elements into the full turnkey solution.

Dr Axel Jahn, Managing Director of TriaGnoSys, said, “Philippine Airlines is the first GSMConneX commercial airline customer, which is excellent news. We have designed our hardware and software portfolio to be highly flexible, so we were able to move very quickly to meet the airline’s specific requirements, which in this case included the addition of Wi-Fi capability. In fact, the customization process took only a few months.”

As well as connectivity, the GSMConneX platform has been designed specifically to host a wide range of software application modules. These include entertainment and non-flight-critical cockpit applications.

Ian Dawkins, CEO of OnAir, said, “The beauty of GSMConneX is that it is very simple to install and TriaGnoSys is highly flexible and easy to work with. That is very attractive for airlines, which want to provide inflight connectivity for their passengers in the most straightforward way possible. The ability to offer both GSM and Wi-Fi services is very important: passengers want to be able to choose how they communicate during the flight, just as they can on the ground.”

As an EASA Part 21 Design Organization and Production Organization, TriaGnoSys supplies GSMConneX as certified hardware; it is available with an EASA Form 1. The GSMConneX hardware is manufactured at TriaGnoSys’ headquarters in Oberpfaffenhofen near Munich, Germany.