On the cooperation meeting that was held by China Eastern Airlines and Microsoft on 13th January, director of China Eastern Airlines transition office Zhang Chi revealed that, CAAC was studying on the issue of whether mobile phones can be powered on during the flight. Zhang Chi said that this issue was under prudent demonstration.
At present, passengers are forbidden to turn on their mobile phones during the flight in domestic airlines, even in the flight mode. While foreign airlines don’t have such mandatory requirements. Zhang Chi revealed that it was because of the complicated telecom situation in China, but CAAC was carrying out researches on this matter. Another airline industry insider said it was possible to change in the future.
Zhang Chi said that China Eastern Airlines will announce important information in the next month, and its WIFI flights will be expanded as well. According to the news, all the newly added flights in China Eastern Airlines will be equipped with hardware which support WIFI function, and it will also conduct upgrade of the existing flights. At present, only a few flights between Beijing and Shanghai in China Eastern Airlines are capable of WIFI, but it will cover all the wide-body flights of China Eastern Airlines in the next few years.