The Hindu Business Line : Stay in touch with your doc as you fly

Hyderabad, Dec. 1 As you fly 35,000 feet above ground level, you may feel cut off from the earth for a few hours. Not any longer. While you can carry your office along, you can also keep in touch with your doctor through a telemedicine link, chat with your fellow travellers, play 3-D games, and watch television programmes live.

Air travel will not be a point-to-point affair any more. It is going to take new directions, according to Mr V. Thulasidas, Chairman and Managing Director of Air India. Agreed, the on-board entertainment menu is quite sumptuous. “But, how many movies can one see? How long can one sleep? There is still a lot of time that can be put into quality use,” Mr Thulasidas said, talking about challenges in the aviation sector at Infocom-2007.

RFID tracking

See what Air India is lining up for its passengers. “We are looking at RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) for tracking passengers as they go on a shopping spree in the airport area,” Mr Sridhar Phadke, Executive Director (IT), said. The Dream Liner, the Boeing 787 which will be inducted into the Air India fleet next year, will be an electronically enabled aircraft.

Calling on IT

Mr Thulasidas wanted the IT industry to play a saviour to turn around the fortunes of the bleeding airline industry. Faced with skyrocketing operational costs and very thin margins (as low as three per cent), the airlines needed to cut revenue expenditure in order to increase yields, he felt.