'空中上网'业务方兴未艾 东航将提供该项服务

Airline to offer Wi-Fi

飞机上将会提供无线上网

China Eastern Airlines will launch in-flight Wi-Fi services on 21 of its flights, making the first extensive splash in the huge potential domestic market.

东航将在21架飞机上向旅客提供"空中上网"服务，这是国内首次批准这一服务大范围使用，标志着一个潜力巨大的市场的解封。

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will give green light to more airlines to launch such services, said an insider.

一位知情人士透露，接下来还会有更多航企获得工信部放行。

Currently, it is estimated that there are 360m people travelling by air annually in China, each flying 2.5 hours on average. That makes a total of 900m potential hours yet to be filled.

据估算，按照中国民航年均运送旅客3.6亿人次、人均飞行2.5小时计算，一年就有9亿小时的飞行时间可以利用。

The in-flight online services thus have the potential to become an RMB100b industry, according to experts.

因此专家认为，整个民航互联网产业规模可能将超过千亿元。