Airlines get wired up for additional revenue
According to The LA Times, airlines are bringing back wireless Internet service on planes, allowing business tech savvy travelers to check their e-mails, browse the Web and log into their corporate and social networks while in flight.
There hasn’t been in-flight Internet access since Boeing Co. killed a very expensive, multibillion-dollar project to wire planes all over the world with a satellite-based system.
Now several smaller Internet companies have come up with cheaper systems that are working well. AirTran Airways, which has six departures a day at Los Angeles International Airport, said it will equip all of its 136 planes with WiFi by the end of July.
Larger carriers, Delta Air Lines, which operates more than 1,000 planes, and American Airlines, with more than 600 jets, are rolling the service out over the next year.
With the serious slump in travel, airlines see the service as a way to boost shrinking revenues. Under American’s system, passengers can begin accessing the Internet with their laptops, smart phones and hand-held PDAs once the plane reaches 10,000 feet.
The fee will be $12.95 for flights longer than three hours and $9.95 for those that are less. Hand-held device users will be charged $7.95 regardless of the flight’s length.
Virgin America has also begun offering wireless Internet service on flights between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. as well as on all flights to Boston. The airline expects to have Internet on all flights by summer.
The fee is similar to American, but it also has a red-eye special of $5.95 for those flying across the country late at night.
Karen
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