American Airlines Rolls Out the WiFi
A Gogo-produced video explains how in-flight Internet connectivity works.
After months of speculation about when, or even if, inflight WiFi would come to pass, American Airlines switched on the system this morning on its fleet of fifteen 767-200s that operate coast to coast out of JFK, San Francisco, and LAX airports, as well as on a daily Miami to New York roundtrip. The airline had wanted to be first in the market, a goal that undoubtedly became more urgent with rival Delta boasting it would offer WiFi systemwide within a year--although it has yet to install it. (Virgin America has also signed up for the Aircell service, which uses the brand name Gogo; JetBlue, Southwest, and Alaska are pursuing similar setups, but none has come out with a firm startup date.)
When I stopped by JFK Airport at around ten this morning, I found Aircell CEO Jack Blumenstein and American technology manager Doug Backelin hunched over their laptops in the Admirals Club, monitoring how things were going on the six WiFi-equipped aircraft that were airborne at that moment. One eager flier had jumped the gun and used the service on a red-eye flight from the West Coast last night, ahead of the official launch at 7 a.m. today. "He got on at 1:05 a.m. Central time, and he was on for four hours!" Blumenstein said with a laugh. So far, they said, results were promising--on one plane 50 people were logged on at once.
The service costs $13 per flight ($10 for shorter flights, when that's introduced). Fliers can register ahead of departure on gogoinflight.com or do so at the boarding gate or on the flight itself. There's no limit to how many fliers can be on at once, though whether it could handle a full planeload of Web surfers has yet to be tested.
The airline will be monitoring the results closely over the next three to six months, and is still billing it as a "trial"--albeit one with a likely outcome, as numerous surveys has shown that Internet connections are a top priority for business travelers. Blumenstein says that the system works exactly the same as Internet access in your hotel or an airport lounge, for example, turning the plane into a moving WiFi hotspot. "It's giving the consumer the freedom to do on the plane what they can do on the ground," he said, noting the service will support any WiFi enabled device, including smartphones and PDAs. But there's one important exception: Voice-over Internet protocol services will be blocked, and inflight cell phone calls will continue to be banned under a federal rule.
But why now, when financially troubled airlines are taking away many amenities or charging for things that used to be free, like checked bags? Backlein pointed out that Internet connectivity has been in the works for more than two years, before jet fuel prices shot up, and, besides, American stands to make some money on the service if it takes off.
The Aircell technology adds about 150 pounds to the plane's weight, a nominal amount. Aircell maintains a network of 92 cell phone towers in the U.S., and the service could be extended to Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean--though not to longer overseas flights, which would require a far more complex technology.
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