Not yet sure if it is a good news or not, but Air France has become the first airline in the world to offer an in-flight mobile phone service on international flights.

One Airbus A318 aircraft operating European routes has been fitted with a mini GSM base station to provides 123 passengers the possibility to :

• Send and receive sms and mms messages
• Send and receive emails via all phones with Internet access

During the second half of the trial, passengers will be able to make and receive phone calls, with the service being regulated to maintain passengers’ comfort and well-being.

If passengers kindly turn off ringing traffic data from/to an aircraft should not be a big deal, if not journeys may become quite annoying with uninterrupted flow of incoming messages ringing alert.

Hard to imagine how will be a long haul flight with full mobile phone services (voice and data) "offered" to passengers. 

At the end of the six-month trial, Air France will examine the feedback and comments made by customers to determine whether to launch this service on all its flights.

What is your feeling about the availability of in-flight mobile phone service ? 

For the technical part,
Air France uses Mobile OnAir onboard mobile telephony system, certified by EASA (European Aviation Safety Authority) which does not interfere with the radio-navigation instruments on this Airbus A318 and may only be used at cruising altitude once the new illuminated sign “Switch off your phone” is turned off (recycling the "no smoking" sign ?).  The system is activated at 3,000 metres (10,000 feet).

More about this trial on AirFrance site including a video of the 1st trial flight.

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• You're traveling a lot.
• You're spending long boring hours in airport lounges.
• You're often having dinner in solo in unknown cities.
• You never speak with your neighbor during flight.

  Rings a bell ?

Could it be different if you could travel with someone who shares same interest or who works in the industry or even works for the same company than you ? 

So such reasons, PairUp proposes to reinvent business travels by introducing the concept of "Connected Travel" allowing businesspeople for the first time to easily share travel plans and instantly search for potential business connections at their next trip destination or industry event across companies and across booking engines.

For sure the "about PairUp" speaks only about business opportunities as it's "Made in USA" but it could also be used to meet people sharing same non-professional interests.

Once logged on, the workflow is rather simple:

• Add information about your trip itinerary
• Select confidentiality level (who can know about your trip, i.e people of your industry, in your network, attending same event, etc..)
• Select your Networking interests for this trip (activities, business opportunities, professional networking, companion seating, etc..).

Then, search (with narrowing options) to have your "Confirmed Connections" and "Potential Connections" displayed and easily contact any person of interest.

Sounds easy no ?

Now, is anyone use, or already used, this flying social network ?
What were the results?

Tags: air, aircraft, airport, arc, ATT, Aviation, book, business travel, cities, connection, connections, engine, event, flight, ia, im, industry, King, lan, light, network, opportunities, Our World, pair, pair up, search, seat companion, share, sharing, simple, social, social networking, space, Travel, USA, www

Yesterday, an Airbus A-380 took-off for the 2000th time and this flight was also the 1st public flight. The largest passenger plane took-off with more than 200 journalists & companies executives on board for a 2 hours flight over the Pyrenees.

The megaplane can fly non-stop for 9,300 miles (15'000 kms) with up to 840 passengers. However, airlines will most likely hold an average of 525 passengers in a 3-classes configuration.

When A380 launches for Singapore Airlines later this year it could have features such as a gym, cocktail bar, nursery, and private first-class cabin suites with their own sliding doors, desk and be.

Sources : The Guardian / Airbus 

Tags: 2007, 2008, a380, air, airbus, aircraft, airlines, art, Aviation, blog, ces, configuration, event, flight, gap, ia, im, lan, launch, light, list, megaplane, nomadcom.net, Our World, passengers, public, singapore airlines, space, story, superjumbo, take off, Travel, uk, wp, www