Lufthansa Group is planning to offer inflight connectivity on “more than 150 additional aircraft” flying for Austrian, Lufthansa and Swiss via the European Aviation Network (EAN) from the fourth quarter of this year. The arrangement marks a substantial increase in connectivity for Austrian and Lufthansa on their shorthaul networks, and is the first time that Swiss will see inflight connectivity aboard its narrowbody aircraft. 

A messaging tier will also be available across this new connectivity system — and is also now activated across older satcom systems — free for all passengers who have signed up to either the group’s Travel ID system or its Miles & More frequent flyer programme.

“The plan is to fully equip all aircraft in the Airbus A220/320 family (A220, A319, A320ceo, A320neo, A321ceo, A321neo) operated by Lufthansa, Austrian Airlines and now also Swiss, in total more than 150 aircraft,” says the airline group.

“Today’s announcement continues a successful and long-standing partnership between the companies. Inmarsat, which was recently acquired by Viasat has provided its Ka-band IFC service to Lufthansa Group since 2015. This connectivity solution is already onboard 240 Lufthansa Group narrowbody aircraft.”

The EAN is a hybrid air-to-ground (ATG)/S-band satellite network, with the ground component operated by Lufthansa Group partner (and indeed longtime Inmarsat-now-Viasat partner) Deutsche Telekom, and S-band coverage from Viasat.

Altogether, it seems that Lufthansa has overcome its questions about overwater EAN coverage gaps, which should of course be solved by the satellite element and antenna sites in the North Sea.

Viasat’s acquisition of Inmarsat, meanwhile, has put to rest the many lawsuits filed over the ATG portion of EAN’s hybrid system.

There is no detail yet about whether the deal includes upgrades for aircraft with existing Global Xpress classic Ka-band satellite-supported IFC — provided by the erstwhile Inmarsat, now Viasat using Honeywell’s JetWave terminal — to either EAN connectivity or indeed next-generation GX, as supported by ThinKom Solutions’ Ka2517 VICTS antenna.

Lufthansa Group expects to begin installing EAN systems “from the fourth quarter of 2024”, and to be completed after approximately two years. Once complete, the entire Airbus narrowbody fleet of the three airlines will be connected.

With Lufthansa, Austrian, Eurowings and now Swiss connected, the praline-filled elephant in the room is of course Brussels Airlines, which still has no connectivity on any of its aircraft. Its absence in this deal will go no way to remediating the impression that Brussels is a kind of unloved stepchild within the group — a shame given that its compact hub at BRU and tight network banking is among the best in the Lufthansa stable.

Slightly smaller questions, in scale at least, also come for the latest set of Lufthansa subsidiaries, City Airlines (branded as Lufthansa City) and Discover Airlines (formerly Eurowings Discover). 

Crucial to the success of the EAN programme will be the balance of pricing and performance that Lufthansa and its airline stablemates select. British Airways’ apparent speed caps earlier in the EAN’s operational lifetime were not exactly a ringing endorsement, but recent experiences (notably on Aegean) have been outstanding.

Lufthansa Group’s pricing seems a little high, but perhaps not out of the norm for a continent where free inflight wifi is uncommon, with free to paid tiers depending on speed and flight length: 

• free messaging tier (“up to 150 kbit/s” says Lufthansa) for Miles & More and Travel ID members
• paid messaging tier for 3 EUR or 1,000 miles for others 
• paid premium tier (“up to 4 mbit/s” per the airline) for shorter flights up to 90 minutes for 6 EUR or 2,000 miles
• paid premium tier for longer flights of more than 90 minutes for 8 EUR or 2,600 miles.

Business class passengers might object to having to pay, which they don’t on Aegean, and what these paid tiers lack is any kind of connecting flight pass. Given that so many of the passengers aboard these Lufthansa, Austrian and Swiss flights are connecting — either to another shorthaul flight or to a longhaul destination — it seems like a missed trick not to enable some kind of passthrough, especially since the airline notes that the latest generation of its portal software has been released. Is the airline perhaps waiting for rollout?

Related Articles:

• Once an EAN adversary, Viasat cements commitment to hybrid network
• EAN inflight connectivity astounds on Aegean A321neo
• Lufthansa Technik talks IFC industry disruption, MRO crunch
• Lufthansa Technik flags GDPR constraint to portal-free IFC in Europe
• SkyFive advances A2G connectivity projects in EMEA, elsewhere
• BA’s EAN: 1.5 Mbps just doesn’t cut it in 2022
• Eclipse Technics scales to EAN-sized challenges
• EAN-powered Internet offered on more than 250 aircraft flown by IAG

Featured image credited to Swiss