New Delhi, Nov 4 (IANS): Dubai-based airline major Emirates Tuesday said that it foresees free on-board internet Wi-Fi connections as a standard feature of air travel in the future.

The airline has reported to have invested over $20 million annually in providing the services to its customers. It also reported a 200 percent surge in on-board internet Wi-Fi usage in October.

This is the third year since Emirates launched its in-flight Wi-Fi connectivity, with over half a million passengers have connected to the internet onboard an Emirates flight, and the company says that this demand is expected to increase exponentially.

"It is a fact that our customers want onboard connectivity, and this demand is only going to increase as more people embrace an 'always-on' digital lifestyle, and carry smart mobile devices when they travel. We've always viewed Wi-Fi as a service and a value-added part of Emirates' overall product, rather than a revenue stream," said Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline.

"Ultimately, we believe that onboard Wi-Fi will become a free service, and a standard that customers will expect on a full service airline, just like onboard refreshments and personal inflight entertainment."

Onboard Wi-Fi is available on all of Emirates’ 53 A380s and on 28 Boeing 777s, which serve routes across six continents. The airline also has an aggressive retrofit programme which will eventually see its entire fleet Wi-Fi enabled.

The airline added that on most of its flights equipped with Wi-Fi, passengers can avail the first 10 MBs of data for free. Subsequently, a token $1 charge is imposed for the next 600 MB.

According to the airline’s data, the sites its passengers most frequently accessed on-board included Google, Facebook and chat services like Skype, WhatsApp and BBM.