Travel Tech News

The Federal Communications Commission has outlawed in-flight phone calls after airline crew unions and potential passengers complained about possible distractions of calling. The no-calls anathema in the U.S. airline industry runs counter to the experience in Europe, where OnAir's in-flight communications services, including calling, have been welcomed by passengers and crews.

HeatMapper, a free Windows XP/Vista application, performs the neat trick of letting you walk around your office or home while it continuously scans for Wi-Fi networks. When you stop walking and inform the program of such, you're presented with a heatmap of every network found. This lets you survey interference and see how your network deployment "looks." Hover over an access point on the heatmap--routers are neatly represented by a generic icon from the manufacturer, identified by its MAC address prefix--and you see the corresponding heatmap. (The graphic is a fancy icon; it's really only a 2D mapping package.) A list at left shows a live scan of networks and their characteristics.

Air France
Air France began testing its "smartboarding" automated boarding system last week on flights from CDG to Amsterdam. Test will run until 2010 and feature a personal card containing biometric, RFID and thermal printing technology, allowing passengers to board through a dedicated portal at their convenience. Program was developed in conjunction with Citizengate.

Aircell, Delta Air Lines
The Gogo WiFi service, provided by Aircell, utilizes a network of ground towers beaming signals to three small antennas located on each airplane. The ground-to-air system also is being deployed on other U.S. airline fleets including Delta Air Lines, which already has deployed the service on several planes. Aircell built its system by purchasing spectrum after Verizon Communications gave up its seatback Airfone system.

Amadeus
Amadeus, a leading global technology and distribution partner to the travel and tourism industry, and Airport Transport Service Co., Ltd. (Airport Limousine), the leading provider of airport shuttle services between Narita Airport and the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, have signed a global technology and distribution partnership for a limousine bus ticket booking solution. As a result of the partnership, more than 100,000 travel agencies worldwide will be able to offer customers the option of pre-booking Airport Transport Service tickets between Narita Airport and the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, at the point when they make flight and accommodation bookings on the Amadeus GDS.

American Airlines
Wi-Fi service by American Airlines is scheduled for 150 domestic MD-80s this year to be followed by the rollout of the Wi-Fi service on Boeing 737-800 aircraft. After testing Gogo's Inflight Internet service on 15 of its passenger jets, American Airlines has decided to install the Wi-Fi service on a third of its 900 aircraft over the next two years. American Airlines said it will start the deployment process by installing the Gogo service on 150 domestic MD-80s this year, to be followed by the rollout of the Wi-Fi service on Boeing 737-800 aircraft.

American Airlines
American Airlines tests for WiFi service, was carried out on 15 Boeing 767-200 planes, were successfully tested on flights between New York's Kennedy Airport and San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Miami. In essence, the service turns passenger jets into flying Wi-Fi hotspots after the jets reach 10,000 feet, letting passengers use their laptops and smartphone handsets to surf the Web. Users, however, won't be able to make VoIP calls.

American Airlines
American Airlines is pricing its new WiFi service at $12.95 for flights longer than three hours and $9.95 for flights shorter than three hours. Customers using smartphone handsets will pay $7.95 to use the service for short and long flights.

AT&T
Leaks reported from some reasonably accurate sources say that 802.11n might be built into the next model of iPhone, along with chips to support the 7.2 Mbps HSPA flavor to which AT&T is currently upgrading its 3G network. 802.11n was developed as a range and speed booster, employing multiple antennas and two or more radios to work over greater distances (sending a stronger signal, having better receiver sensitivity) and at greater speeds (improved encoding, multiple spatial paths, double-wide channels). That's fine for laptops, desktops, and routers, but it's hard to cram that much radio technology into a battery-powered mobile device without making the time between charges unusably brief. That's where single-stream 802.11n comes in. With single-stream 802.11n, only a single radio and single antenna are used. This may seem odd to cut out most of the advantages of the standard - lurching its way to a 2010 ratification, by the way - but single stream still offers quite a lot.

Row 44
A competing WiFi service to AirCell's Gogo is offered by Row 44's satellite technology, which utilizes satellite technology. Southwest Airlines said recently that it plans to test the Row 44 service. The Row 44 service is also used by Alaska Airlines. Boeing's earlier satellite-based service was canceled after the aircraft builder installed it on several international flights.

Sixt
Sixt AG, Germany's leading car rental company and international provider of high quality mobility services, is the first rental company to provide customers with the opportunity to book cars by Apple iPhone. A special Sixt application makes it possible. With just a few taps of their fingers on the screen of a Smartphone, customers all around the world can select and reserve their preferred car. Preliminary hit rates indicate this Sixt application is being welcomed with open arms. This special service allows Sixt to once again ably defend its title as innovation leader. iPhone users can simply download the Sixt application free of charge via the Internet (www.sixt.com/iphone/) using iPhone or iTunes, giving them a wide range of innovative services while on the go: customers can reserve their car by iPhone and see the confirmation immediately as a screen shot. They can also view or cancel their reservations, and the iPhone even displays the closest Sixt points of service. With the "Top Offer" menu tab, customers can get an overview of the latest offers from Sixt. Sixt Express Card users can book their rental car at especially reasonable company rates. The offer applies to Sixt points of service worldwide.

Travelodge
Business travellers with iPhones can now book Travelodge rooms where ever they are in the UK, using inbuilt satellite navigation technology. The free iBooker "app" launched today (March 25) uses GPS to help travellers find a room at their nearest five Travelodge hotels, including images, availability, distance and room rates. iBooker can also be used without GPS, finding the best room prices available once a hotel and arrival date is specified. "We are delighted to be the UK's first hotel brand to launch a free GPS based iPhone application," said Travelodge UK's managing director Guy Parsons.

ZZ AirGuide 090330
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