You have email at 30000 feet

German airline Lufthansa will become the launch customer for a new inflight wi-fi service, due to be launched next summer.

Lufthansa offered passengers inflight internet access until three years ago when the company providing the onboard internet service decided to withdraw from the market, claiming there was no demand.

However, several airlines including British Airways have since started offering passengers inflight wi-fi with other providers and Lufthansa will become the first customer for Panasonic's exConnect service which will allow passengers to connect via both wi-fi and mobile phone networks.

No prices have been fixed for the service, which will be rolled out across Lufthansa's long-haul flights from the middle of next year.

Few airlines currently allow passengers to make mobile phone calls inflight, one of the few exceptions being budget airline Ryanair, which sees the mobile phone calls as another way to make more money from passengers.

Ryanair plans to introduce mobile phone technology on all its aircraft, but at present phone calls are only allowed on aircraft fitted with a Phone Use Permitted Sign.

Calls cost €2 to €3 a minute, a chunk of which goes to Ryanair. Text messages cost about €0.50 each.

Emirates became the first airline to allow passengers to make mobile phone calls inflight in March last year and it now offers the facility on many of its long-haul aircraft. To prevent air rage, passengers are asked to keep their phones in 'silent' mode and the system can be switched off at night.

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