System and method for routing ground-to-air telephone calls

摘要

A system for completing calls to a passenger aboard an aircraft. The passenger activates ground-to-air service by accessing a ground-to-air database subsystem that is located on the ground. The passenger gains access to the ground-to-air database by dialing a special service number and entering a Master Personal Identification Number (Master PIN). Once access to the database is obtained, the passenger may enter one or more ground-to-air forwarding parameters which enable the system to forward ground initiated calls directly to the passenger. At anytime after ground-to-air service has been activated, but before it is terminated, a person on the ground may initiate a call to the passenger by dialing the special service number. In a preferred embodiment, a Ground-to-Air User PIN is employed to screen ground callers.