BEIJING — China has been facilitating network connectivity in its civil aviation fleet with 842 aircraft capable of providing inflight Wi-Fi service by the end of 2021, according to China's civil aviation authorities.

The volume was 188 more than that in 2020 and represented a 29 percent year-on-year growth, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

By the end of 2021, 23 Chinese airlines were capable of serving their passengers with inflight Wi-Fi connectivity service.

There are two modes of inflight Wi-Fi service, which are the local network in the cabin and the air-ground internet connectivity.

Among the 842 civil aircraft with inflight network service, 213 could provide air-ground internet connectivity service, representing that passengers aboard can have access to the internet during the flight.

The CAAC data shows that in 2021 more than 1.3 million passengers enjoyed inflight internet connections while onboard Chinese civil airplanes.

Providing inflight network services requires the management of various factors in different areas, such as frequency resources, telecommunication services, airworthiness and network information security.

The CAAC will boost the upgrading and improvement of network infrastructure by tackling problems with network speed and bandwidth. The administration is also committed to supporting operators in providing diversified air-to-ground communication networks, enhancing the internet-access speed of aircraft, and expanding network coverage, said the CAAC.

Thanks to joint efforts, the Ku-band APSTAR-6D high-throughput satellite was put into service for Chinese airliners in 2021. It greatly expands the network bandwidth from the previous 10 Mbit/s to more than 100 Mbit/s, thus greatly enhancing passengers' surfing experience.

China's independently-developed Ka-band ChinaSat 16 HTS satellite had also started service for some airliners' verification flights.

It is expected that more air-to-ground communication network resources will be put into operation and serve inflight network communications, said the CAAC.