Romanian state-owned airline Tarom launches a new service that allows passengers to connect to an online platform where they can do shopping, watch movies, and read newspapers and magazines using their mobile devices while aboard.

Passengers will also be able to play games, listen to music, and communicate with each other using a chat service during flights.

This service will first be available on Tarom’s longer flights, to Madrid, Barcelona, and Dubai, starting mid-August this year, and will then become available on all flights, according to the company’s representatives quoted by Economica.net.

The service, which is called Airfi, is actually an intranet platform which includes movies, music, games, newspapers, and magazines. It doesn’t offer real-time connectivity to the internet and to personal social media or email accounts or to other apps such as YouTube.

“We have made the first step to the internet. There are two types of internet access that can be provided on board. The satellite access, which allows real time data transfer, is an expensive service. What we offer to our passengers is Airfi, which is a modern concept that offers internet access on a data base hosted on this device,” said Gabriel Stoe, Tarom’s general manager.

He added that the service will not come with extra costs for passengers. Tarom’s provider for the service is Dnata Catering, which is part of Emirates group.

Tarom had revenues of EUR 256 million in 2015, slightly higher compared to 2014, and managed to reduce its losses four times, to EUR 6.2 million.

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editor@romania-insider.com