KUCHING, Sept 20 — Low-cost carrier AirAsia Malaysia is targeting to upgrade its inflight WiFi connectivity onboard its entire fleet of 98 aircraft by next year.

Its chief executive officer, Riad Asmat said all the planes will be equipped with Inmarsat’s high-speed broadband network, Ka-band known as GX Aviation that offers an enhanced inflight entertainment and connectivity experience beyond basic broadband, supporting real-time video and music streaming.

"Currently 49 aircraft are equipped with L-band that catered more to messaging and light browsing, while another six aircraft have been equipped with Ka-band since the beginning of this month,” he said at the AirAsia WiFi Inflight Experience With Media event at the Kuching International Airport here, today.

He said the passengers could enjoy an inflight Wi-Fi connectivity ranging from 10 Megabytes (MB) to 200MB with prices starting from RM9 to RM58.

The passengers also get a free 10MB trial of the new service from today until September 30, 2019.

Meanwhile, Rokki CEO Sargunan Seenivasan said Rokki, as a provider of inflight entertainment, is targeting 40 per cent from an average of 150 passengers to be using the inflight WiFi service.

He said about 20 per cent of the passengers were using the WiFi service since its introduction in June 2017.

"Now we see an upward trend among youths and businessmen with around 25 per cent of them using this service. We hope to see more users when the service is upgraded with GX-Aviation powered by Rokki” he said.

Sargunan said the AirAsia WiFi service also offers free entertainment, music, games, news and shopping experience to the passengers.

As a global mobile satellite communications provider, Inmarsat has designed GX Aviation that brings bold moves and innovations to airlines by creating a new digital experience among passengers, he added. — Bernama