According to AirAsia Bhd’s Ancillary Group Head Kenny Wong, the airlines will equip 20 of its planes with on-board Wi-Fi facilities by year-end. At present, only 4 of the company’s planes are providing the services, called roKKi Chats. But by the second quarter of 2015, AirAsia Bhd aims to install the service on all of its 80 planes.
roKKi Chats is an inflight WiFi service that enables guests to use selected Instant Messaging applications (IM apps) while flying. The roKKi Chats-supported IM apps are WhatsApp, WeChat, and LINE. So whoops, no Instagrammming pictures hashtagged #sunrise or #sunset or #rainbow or #cloudporn just yet!
The Wi-Fi service will turn on automatically once the aircraft is at a minimum altitude of 10,000 feet. The system will take roughly 5 minutes to start up and an inflight announcement will be made when roKKi Chats is activated. Once activated, you can detect and connect to the roKKi Chats network.
Guests on board can connect to the in-flight WiFi network using their own WiFi-enabled devices to access IM apps. Accessing the service is similar to how WiFi is commonly accessed on land (e.g. at the airport, cafes, homes, etc.).
Each roKKi Chats token is priced at RM8 for a total of 3MB data usage on WeChat, WhatsApp and LINE. However, you’d be pleased to know that in conjunction with the launch, guests on board the Wi-Fi enabled flights enjoy an introductory price of RM5 per token for a limited time. Each token is applicable for one device only.
The tokens are sold on a first-come first-served basis on each flight as it’s limited to only 90 users per flight, and is compatible on most tablets and smartphones.
Note: The system will turn off automatically when the aircraft reaches below 10,000 feet or when in restricted air spaces of India, China, and Macau. Also, roKKi Chats is not available for AirAsia X flights as of yet.
For more information, visit AirAsia’s website.
