RSSIn-flight Wi-Fi: Everybody's doing it
By Tim Conneally | Published October 8, 2009, 3:48 PM
Aircell has made a commanding name for itself in in-flight Wi-Fi systems. In its first year offering GoGo InFlight Internet service, the company has secured Wi-Fi contracts with Virgin America, American Airlines, US Airways, Delta, AirTran, United, and others.
At the beginning of 2009, United announced that it would begin to offer Aircell's GoGo Wi-Fi on its transcontinental service between New York and California "in the second half of this year," and it has finally been able to deliver.
The first flight featuring this service took place last Friday, and the airline is said to be outfitting 13 more Boeing 757s with Aircell's Wi-Fi hardware, with completion expected by the middle of November. On the transcontinental flight, Wi-Fi access costs $12.95 for laptops and $7.95 for Wi-Fi smartphones and PDAs, and all flight classes have access. Aircell varies the price depending on the length of time the flight is in the air. For short hops, it costs $5.95, for 1.5 to 3 hours, it's $9.95, and for up to 24 hours it's $12.95.
Five airlines have commercially deployed Aircell's Wi-Fi, and three more are expected to be complete by next year, putting GoGo on more than 570 aircraft.
But Aircell isn't the only one making a name for itself. Southwest Airlines is taking a different approach with a different system, built by California company Row 44, supplemented by JiWire's in-flight advertising platform. Rather than only allow paying customers online, limited access will be freely available to all passengers.
Of course, free access will be limited to a portal called "Skytown Center" which is the online equivalent of the Skymall catalog, rife with advertisements. But paying customers will be granted unfettered access for likely a much lower cost if still ad-supplemented.
The Wi-Fi Alliance recently released a survey of 480 frequent business fliers, in which 76% said they would choose an airline based upon the availability of in-flight Internet.
Some 71% of respondents also said they would choose Wi-Fi over an in-flight meal. Let the contrived airline food jokes begin.
I don't think frequent fliers are the best people to survey. Often they are in numerous airline programs, so switching between airlines doesn't make a difference. If I have miles on United and American, and both fly to my destination, then its a no brainer to pick the flight with wifi assuming all else is fairly equal.
In the end, I think cost is a much bigger factor, plus destination and flight times. When all else is equal, and if you don't have a tie to a specific airline due to FF program, then choosing the one with wifi would be easy.
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|For a moment I read it as: In-flight: Everybody's doing it. LOL.
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|I would choose wi-fi over a qualified pilot on a plane. a risk im willing to take.
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|Please, flying is bad enough without adding Internet availability. I am going to need better noise reducing head phones.
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|I like the idea of receiving email on my Blackberry during a flight, but dread the thought of the guy next to me talking on his'
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|When will the first crashing passenger in a plane Tweet the crash?
Scary prospect.
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|When choosing an Airline, the first thing I think we all look at is price, and availability.
Then I look at all the Fee's that are attached. Bag Check in fee, change fee, cancel fee, etc...
I do a lot of flying with my business and all those fee's start adding up after a while. So thats why I choose Southwest Airlines for all my flying. Yeah it's a no frills airline, but if you want an in flight movie, take your laptop and bring some DVD's.
It's nice that SWA is going to be adding Internet to it's fleet of aircraft.
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|Addicted to the internet much?
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