The rollout of in-flight internet service on United Airlines’ international fleet is spreading. The two-cabin 777-200ER fleet is now operating with the service; it was quietly introduced within the past couple weeks. The first aircraft fitted was N79011 (Ship 3011) which appears to have received the initial hardware install in June at the HAECO maintenance facility in Hong Kong. The plane was back in Hong Kong in mid-August and when it exited that maintenance cycle the service was active.
A second aircraft, N78008 (Ship 3008) spent two weeks at HKG, just getting out on 3 September. It, too now has the service installed while N76010 (Ship 3010) is currently in for fitting. Assuming the two-week install time holds that means we should see the deployment for this subfleet completed by May 2015. Hopefully they can speed up the installation (and I have no idea if there are other actions happening at the same time or if it is all about the wifi install, though I’d be surprised if the install took that long) and shrink the install window.
There’s also a chance that United will open a second line for the installs depending on new aircraft deliveries and fleet utilization needs. Peak summer travel season has wrapped up so there may be a bit more slack in the schedule now to pull more planes out for servicing. Either way, great to see the installs continuing though different aircraft types. That’s definitely a win for passengers.
As for the 3-cabin 777s, no real progress on the WiFi installs there.
h/t to Stephan for noticing the radome on ship 3011 in EWR this afternoon.
Related Posts:
- The tale of three in-flight internet services
- United 777s have wifi, but not for passengers
- United Airlines quietly activates LiveTV-powered wifi on some 737s
- United adds 787-9 (with wifi!!) to their fleet
- United Airlines officially launches in-flight wifi service
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