On January 16, 2018, Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) issued "Usage Assessment Guidance for Portable Electronic Device (PED), Guidance for short", after which China Eastern Airlines firstly announced the implement of In-Air WiFi and Hainan Airlines became the first to carry it out, marking the blowout of domestic airlines' endeavor to complete their auxiliary service. Hereinto this article analyzes the path of In-Air WiFi from the perspective of Airlines' endeavor to develop auxiliary service.

1 Interpretation of Guidance

When people are thrilled at the news of the permission of using cell phone on board, the truth is the issuing of Guidance is under three premises: firstly, airlines should verify that the use of PED in air will not influence aircraft's navigation and communication systems; secondly, airlines should compile PED usage specification and make it fully notified to passengers; thirdly, PED can only be used under the control of cabin crew, and once the navigation or communication system is disturbed or the aircraft is under emergency,all the PED on board should be turned off, except some medical electronic devices.

Currently, domestic airlines' permission for mobile phone on board covered two dimensions: for one thing, it is permitted that passengers can turn on mobile phones with "airplane mode" on when the aircraft is cruising yet without In-Air WiFi, mobile phones are only media players; for the other, passengers can surf the Internet in aircraft equipped with In-Air WiFi, while the service experience is depended on the performance of the WiFi equipment and the total data flow needed in air simultaneously.

According to incomplete statistics, domestic airlines has 3296 aircraft in total right now, including 360 wide-bodied and 120 out of 3296 have been equipped with In-Air WiFi, mostly wide-bodied jetliners, except for 9 Airlines, Chinese low cost carrier affiliated to Juneyao Airlines, has equipped In-Air Wifi in its newly introduced B737-800. That is to say, since airlines usually put wide-bodied aircraft in domestic trunk routes like Beijing = Shanghai route and international long haul routes in terms of economy, most passengers in domestic flights may not have the opportunity to enjoy WiFi in air.

2 How Can Airlines Profit on the Service

Firstly, passengers could pay for the use of WiFi on board, especially long-distance travelers, to whom the access to Internet is essential and those with urgent business or stock holders, who are willing to pay the expensive service fee since the communication in air brings high opportunity cost.

Secondly, the opening of mobile phone payment for service on board releases the potential consumption for airlines' auxiliary service like sales of tax-free goods, chargeable in-flight entertainment, seat selection, destination hotel booking and so on.

Last but not least, high-value travelers on board can also bring profits. Most of them are high-level consumers who are targeted by certain business modes. In-Air WiFi provides the access to those high-value customers and this sort of resources can be beneficial.