OnAir

Onboard passengers keep in touch through OnAir and TelecityGroup

“Our experience with TelecityGroup has been nothing but extremely positive. I am convinced TelecityGroup offers best in class data centres, with outstanding support. The environment is spotless and everything you expect; the smallest details have been thought through and taken care of. We do not have to worry about business continuity so much: TelecityGroup’s Amstel Business Park data centre has redundancy in abundance.”

Peter Ansbro,
Head of Operations and Customer Support at OnAir

Inflight communications provider OnAir has been filling in one of the last existing gaps in connectivity: that on aircrafts and ships. With their outstanding solutions they have made it possible for travelers to use their preferred communications device, including their own laptops or (smart)phones to make and receive calls, send and receive text messages, access their email and connect to the internet or their corporate network. Now primarily offered as a service for business travelers, demand is growing fast, and inflight or onboard communications are expected to become mainstream soon. By moving its key infrastructure to TelecityGroup data centres OnAir has secured its services and is geared for growth.

OnAir was founded in 2005 by air transport IT and telecommunication solutions provider SITA and aircraft manufacturer Airbus. OnAir eliminated the reason why mobile phones were banned on aircrafts by emulating a local GSM network inside the aircraft. This small local mobile network prevents mobile phones radiating at their maximum power to (attempt to) log on to a terrestrial network during flight, which could cause harmful interference to the avionics and cellular networks on the ground. Today, OnAir has offices on four continents and is the designated market leader worldwide, with no competitor offering the same complete set of products, and servicing 54 % of the airlines that currently offer some form of connectivity. The company’s customer list includes private and corporate jet manufacturers, but also airlines such as TAP Portugal, Oman Air, Qatar Airways, Wataniya Airways (from Kuwait), Royal Jordanian and British Airways. Recently celebrating its 100.000th commercial flight with its inflight connectivity services, OnAir CEO Benoit Debains predicts: “2010 will be the year in which the service becomes commonplace across the industry.” By closing a deal with Hapag Lloyd, OnAir recently also expanded into the shipping sector.

Last year’s business momentum urged OnAir to investigate whether its existing infrastructure set up could cope with rapidly growing demand and network traffic. Peter Ansbro, Head of Operations and Customer Support at OnAir: “Our existing supplier had trouble meeting our growing demands for flexibility, control and faster response times. Our search for a data centre started at TelecityGroup, who I knew had a solid reputation and client base in the UK financial market. This told me that they would have the necessary security and compliancy measures already in place. Location-wise we wanted to be close to Inmarsat, as our inflight networks connect to our ground infrastructure via Inmarsat’s SwiftBroadband Satellite link. This brought us directly to TelecityGroup Amsterdam, and the commercial professionalism we encountered there, combined with competitive pricing, made us look no further.”

OnAir started the project of moving existing infrastructure and setting up new redundant infrastructure in October 2009 and has just finished deployment. Ansbro: “Our experience with TelecityGroup has been nothing but extremely positive. I am convinced TelecityGroup offers best in class data centres, with outstanding support. The environment is spotless and everything you expect; the smallest details have been thought through and taken care of. We do not have to worry about business continuity so much: TelecityGroup’s Amstel Business Park data centre has redundancy in abundance.” Ansbro concludes with a smile: “Let inflight communications become the next big thing. We’re ready!"

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