Air travellers' internet boon; holiday shorts.

FROM the middle of next year, Lufthansa's customers will again enjoy the full freedom to communicate via the internet above the clouds as the airline relaunches FlyNet, its on-board broadband internet service.

The new service will also permit in-flight data transfer over standard GSM/GPRS mobile networks.

Thanks to FlyNet, passengers will not only have WLAN internet access but will also be able to send SMS messages by mobile phone and transfer data via smartphones such as PDA, iPhone or BlackBerry devices.