Air France, ESA join to offer passengers unique view of voyage

September 5, 2007

One of ESA satellite images displayed on screens through Geovision system onboard select Air France flights. Credits: ESA

Have you ever wished you could clearly see the mountains, coastline, desert, ocean or city underneath your aircraft as you flew over? Passengers onboard select Air France flights will soon be able to explore the unique range of destinations being flown over, such as the Alps, Himalayas or Gulf of Siam, thanks to satellite images provided by ESA.

The show, which has been integrated into the in-flight Geovision programme, will begin automatically with beautiful and captivating images correlating to the route appearing on onboard screens on all Air France flights operating between Paris and Singapore, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore.

In order to provide the most interesting images of each destination, ESA selected 250 acquisitions from various satellites, including ESA’s Envisat and Proba, Korea’s Kompsat and CNES’s (French Space Agency) Spot.

"It is an example of the innovative initiatives that Air France aims to develop for our passengers. We are looking forward to extending this exclusive offer to others destinations," Air France’s Patrick Roux Vice-President Marketing said.

ESA’s Head of Communication Fernando Doblas said: "Integrating satellite images into Air France’s in-flight service provides an excellent opportunity to create public awareness and interest for space technologies, and in particular for those related to Earth Observation.

"The imagery has been specifically chosen to afford passengers the possibility to tour the planet from a bird’s-eye view and to gain a different perspective and appreciation of Earth by witnessing its splendour as well as its vulnerable spots."

Since their advent, Earth-observing satellites have become powerful scientific tools for enabling a better understanding of the various components of the Earth system – land, ice, atmosphere, biosphere and oceans – and how these processes interact and influence each other.

Acquired continuously, satellite data provide reliable and timely information about the state of our world, allowing us to improve our management of the Earth and, thus, our quality of life.

Source: ESA