American to bring Wi-Fi to 777-200s, 787s

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American Airlines today announced it will bring Panasonic Avionics’ Ku-band satellite-supported inflight Internet solution to its Boeing 777-200 fleet as well its its new-delivery Boeing 787s, and said “that also includes inflight entertainment nose to tail”.

In a special Google Hangout event, hosted at International CES, American director of inflight entertainment and connectivity Brian Richardson and Panasonic executive director of corporate sales and product management Neil James discussed the new deal, and also highlighted the importance of connectivity to passengers.

Panasonic already provides its Ku-band connectivity system, dubbed eXConnect, to American’s news 777-300ERs.

People want to be connected everywhere, all the time, says Richardson. And Panasonic’s system “provides a nice amount of bandwidth”.