Airplane passengers will be allowed to use their mobile phones and connect to the Internet from now on. Shenzhen Airlines is the company that will make this possible for China too, as they have already used it in Europe and Australia until now.

Shenzhen Airlines is hurrying to bring this service for the Chinese too, as the 2008 Beijing Olympics edition is approaching. The company is keeping it real, though, as it only looks to have three demonstration aircraft ready for this event. The service will be launched at full power only by mid-2009, enough for best adapting it to this new market's requirements and closing agreements with partners.

In order to make this possible, Shenzhen Airlines has partnered with OnAir. As a result, airplane passengers will benefit from email, SMS and voice call services at regular standards. The OnAir service will be installed across Shenzhen Airlines' full fleet of Boeing 737 and Airbus A320-family aircraft.

"Our goal is to build a world class airline and we will achieve it through the provision of innovative services such as Mobile OnAir. We are very proud to be the first airline in China to provide passengers with the ability to communicate during flights", said Li Kun, President at Shenzhen Airlines.

The equipment needed for placing inflight calls will be both retrofitted on the airline's existing aircraft and line-fitted on new aircraft. Their initiative comes as a result of the huge number of mobile phone users from this country. Allowing them to use their devices on airplanes will bring considerable revenues to the companies that make it possible. Because it is quite difficult to make this possible, the service is expected to bring some extra money to the providers.

Shenzhen Airlines has brought its services on more than 130 airplane routes in China, Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Vietnam.