THREE YEARS OF EAN

Three years ago, the award-winning European Aviation Network (EAN) that we developed together with Inmarsat went commercially live on British Airways flights. More than 50 million people have enjoyed access to the award-winning connectivity solution on over 420,000 flights across the continent with British Airways, Iberia, Vueling and AEGEAN since then.

EAN truly proved to be a game-changer with regards to speed, coverage and low latency, when compared to any other inflight Wi-Fi network in Europe. Airline passengers can enjoy seamless internet browsing, video streaming, checking social media, real-time interactive applications such as gaming, and more.

EAN is already available on more than 265 aircraft, including the entire British Airways short-haul fleet. These numbers will continue to grow in the coming years, as final roll-out progresses with Iberia and Vueling – both members of the International Airlines Group (IAG) alongside British Airways – in addition to all of Greek national carrier AEGEAN’s existing and new Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft.

With more people flying again in 2021, also EAN’s popularity soared. Passengers meanwhile show an increased confidence in the service, driving the usage to record heights.

Rolf Nafziger, Senior Vice President, Deutsche Telekom Global Carrier and Global Business, said: “EAN is Europe’s leading inflight connectivity service for good reason, offering reliable, uninterrupted, high-speed broadband on par with services on the ground. Now, airlines are fighting hard to win back customers, and EAN is the best solution available to meet the needs of their passengers, who want to be connected and entertained onboard. Our joint EAN service with Inmarsat means we can continue to help airlines put their passengers first, by providing the fastest and most reliable connectivity available.”

Philippe Carette, President of Inmarsat Aviation, said: “Back in March 2019, British Airways became the first airline to make our EAN inflight broadband service commercially available to passengers. It has since been joined by Iberia, Vueling and most recently AEGEAN, which have all been able to delight passengers with the highest standard of connectivity on short and medium haul flights. EAN has played an important role in enhancing their onboard experience, unlocking new revenue opportunities for airlines and instilling greater confidence in air travel following the pandemic. We’re delighted to celebrate this anniversary with our partners and customers, especially at a time when passenger usage of EAN is now higher than ever before, showing an increased desire to stay connected post Covid-19.”

EAN has been developed by Deutsche Telekom and Inmarsat, in partnership with leading European companies such as Thales, Nokia, Airbus, Cobham and Eclipse Technics. Specifically designed to meet the needs of European aviation, it delivers the fastest inflight broadband over one of the world’s most congested airspaces, while also offering the quickest installation times for airlines and easy scalability to meet growing demand in the future.