Beginning next month, Bahrain national air carrier Gulf Air will offer Sky Hub technology onboard its flights, which makes high speed broadband connectivity and live TV viewing possible even at an altitude of 37,000 feet.

“This is another important milestone in our customer service journey and we are bringing, for the first time in the world, fully-integrated broadband connectivity offering high speed internet, voice over internet, streaming videos and the world’s first in-flight live TV satellite stream across continents,” Gulf Air CEO Mr Samer Majali said.

Sky Hub, which is joint venture between Gulf Air, Panasonic, Deutsche Telekom and Aeromobile, will enable access to emails, text messages, phone calls, web surfing and live TV streaming while in the air.

Although the project costs several million dollars, Mr Majali says the system will pay for itself. “It puts us at the forefront of competition and we will recoup the investment...,” he said.

So far, one aircraft is equipped with a functioning Sky Hub service. A new plane will be fitted with the equipment every two weeks. Gulf Air expects to have its entire fleet outfitted with the technology within five months.

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