United Airlines will upgrade its onboard technology later this year in a move the carrier said will solve its lack of economy class seat back entertainment on Pacific flights.
Internet connectivity will be made available while content from the inflight entertainment system will be streamed through onboard wifi.
Jim Mueller, United vice president Asia Pacific, said it will effectively enable economy class passengers to access inflight entertainment, which is currently only available for first and business class passengers, through laptops, iPhones and iPads.
He said the technology is expected to be available on Pacific flights between Australia and the US in the second half of 2012 or early 2013.
“We have approximately 24 747s and all of them flying in Asia Pacific. As they are converted you will see them in Australia,” Mueller told Travel Today.
Meanwhile, Mueller said he was “happy overall” with the performance of its Australian operation.
“Of course it remains a very competitive route but revenue and yields were up over the course of the last year,” he said. “We are happy overall with the financial performance of the route but with the price of oil where it is we are always looking at opportunities to drive more revenue.”
The strength of demand over the course of the past 18 months has “offset some of the capacity increases”, he added.
“We’ve been flying to Australia for 25 years and we fully intend to keep flying for many years to come,” Mueller said.
