Malaysia Airlines Partners With AeroMobile For Asia's First Inflight Mobile Phone Service

London - November 4, 2008  Malaysia Airlines has scored another first by teaming with AeroMobile, the world’s leading in flight mobile phone operator, to become the first air carrier in Asia to offer in flight mobile phone and data services.

The introduction of this innovation allows passengers on Malaysia Airlines’ flights to safely use their own BlackBerry® type devices and mobile phones to send/receive emails and text messages, and to make and receive voice calls.

The lightweight system was installed on a Boeing 777-200 aircraft of the Malaysian national carrier which will serve flights of its network covering selected European routes, Australia, and across the Asian region including China and Japan. The facility has been extensively tested on the aircraft over the last few weeks, using all aspects of the system with standard BlackBerrys® and mobile phones prior to being launched now for full passenger use.

With the availability of this inflight facility, customers can now safely use their mobile phone or Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) during the ‘cruise’ phase of flight without affecting the aircraft systems and ground telecommunication networks.

AeroMobile supports the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile data to support BlackBerry and other ‘push email’ services including email attachments, as well as voice calls and sms text messages. The GPRS data feature exploits AeroMobile’s unique capability to operate BlackBerry and other email services using Inmarsat’s Swift64 satellite system, which has been added to the trial Boeing 777 aircraft.

The Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 aircraft was equipped with the AeroMobile system during a routine maintenance check, and has received aviation safety approvals (‘Supplemental Type Certificate’) from both the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Appropriate approvals have also been granted by the Malaysian authorities to operate the service.

Bjorn-Taale Sandberg, Chief Executive Officer of AeroMobile, said: “AeroMobile welcomes Malaysia Airlines as the first Asian airline customer to allow its passengers the choice to stay in touch when they fly. Malaysia Airlines has been able to benefit directly from AeroMobile’s unrivalled experience in many areas, such as aircraft certification and service operation.

“AeroMobile’s solution for Malaysia Airlines reflects the advances that we have made since launching the AeroMobile service in April 2007, in particular our ability to offer fully approved installations on both the Boeing and Airbus wide body aircraft while supporting full GPRS data services as well as voice and text messaging services,” he added.

Malaysia Airlines Managing Director/CEO Dato Seri Idris Jala said, “We believe that AeroMobile will give us a competitive edge and will be welcomed by our business and leisure passengers.

“When we launched our Business Transformation Plan this year, we gave an assurance that our Customer Value Proposition delivery through the Malaysian Hospitality way This will further enhance hassle free travel for our passengers.”

“As a Five Star Value Carrier, this is one of the inflight service comforts that we are introducing on a trial basis for our customers. The trial will be conducted to gauge passenger behaviour and acceptability. If the evaluation findings are positive, we aim to roll out the system throughout the remainder of our wide body aircraft fleet next year.” he added.

Users will be billed on their regular phone bills by their own service providers as with any other international roaming call. AeroMobile is working with Malaysia’s mobile phone operators and their customers will be able to use the AeroMobile service if they travel on the equipped aircraft. The system will be available on a number of Malaysia Airlines’ regional and long haul routes including flights to Africa, Japan, Australia and the Middle East.

The cabin crew of the national carrier are also being trained to guide and clarify to passengers on the need to be mindful of other passengers preferences at certain times, such as during night flights. Passengers will be encouraged to switch their phones to silent or vibrate mode when used in the aircraft.

Notes to Editors

About AeroMobile
AeroMobile Limited is a UK-¬based company owned by ARINC Inc and Telenor ASA. It has been pursuing the objective of allowing the safe use of passengers own mobile phones and PDAs since 2003 in response to market demands. AeroMobile is the first in flight mobile technology to be commercially available and first flew in June 2005 on Boeing’s 777-200LR ‘Worldliner’ demonstrator aircraft.

AeroMobile is teamed with Panasonic Avionics Corporation, the Panasonic’s market -leading inflight entertainment (IFE) systems provider, to offer the AeroMobile aircraft technology under the eXPhone brand as an integral part of Panasonic’s IFE systems.

Together, AeroMobile and Panasonic were awarded the “Best Achievement in Technology 2008” award from the World Airline Entertainment Association (WEAA) this September.

More information may be found at www.aeromobile.net

About Malaysia Airlines
Malaysia Airlines, the national carrier of Malaysia, is recognized as one of Asia's largest, flying more than 48,000 passengers to some 100 destinations across 6 continents everyday.

The airline holds a lengthy record of service and best practices excellence, having received more than 100 awards in the last 10 years. The most notable ones include being the first airline to win the "World's Best Cabin Crew" by Skytrax UK consecutively from 2001 until 2004, "5¬star airline" in 2005 and 2006, as well as No.1 for "Economy Class Onboard Excellence 2006" also by Skytrax UK.

For more information contact:
Steve Double or Charlie Hampton
at Bell Pottinger Business & Brand
Telephone: 020 7861 2449/2431
E-Mail: champton@bell-pottinger.co.uk