Emirates Airline has launched WiFi connectivity with leading industry service provider OnAir.

Passengers on many Emirates A380 aircraft can now surf, share, email, or tweet in the air over WiFi using their Wi-Fi enabled devices including smartphones, tablets and laptops. All customers have to do is log on to the OnAir network and follow the simple steps to access the internet.

As part of a proving phase, customers onboard many A380 flights have been using the service for many months already as the system was installed and activated on the first few A380s last year. WiFi services will initially launch on 11 of 19 Emirates A380s currently in service, with the system due to be installed across the entire fleet of 71 Emirates A380s on order. From mid-2012 all new Emirates A380s will be delivered with a full range of WiFi, mobile phone and mobile data services.

Price plans start at $7.50 for mobile devices and $15 on laptops for generous data packages that allow plenty of internet. The $7.50 package should be sufficient for the average Blackberry user to stay connected all the way from Dubai to Paris over six and a half hours.

Emirates flies from Malta to Dubai on a daily schedule through Larnaca, the Cypriot capital.