Delta is just one of the many airlines that has big plans for Wi-Fi on their fleet.(Picture courtesy of Delta.com)
Delta announced this past week that by the end of the month 40% of their domestic fleet will be equipped with Wi-Fi capabilities. This is excellent news for techies out there that can not be without Twitter, MySpace, Facebook or TheBrooklynNomad.com (cheap plug on my own site!) for more than 10 minutes. So far 115 MD88, 14 B757-200, and 1 MD90 aircraft have had internet installed for passengers. Delta is now focusing on the B757-200 and MD90 fleets and expects to have the rest of the 15 MD90s complete by June.
2009 is the year for “Wi-Fi In The Sky”, as many airlines have begun adding internet on their planes. Below is just a sampling of what the airline industry is doing this year to make flying more high tech in the 21st century:
- Virgin America provides passengers with Wi-Fi using Gogo Inflight on all planes between Washington and Los Angeles, California, and all of its Boston routes. Virgin has promised to have their entire fleet Internet ready by June.
- American Airlines announced this past March that it would install Aircell’s Gogo on more than 300 of its domestic fleet by 2011.
- Delta Air Lines also uses Gogo Inflight and plans to have Wi-Fi capabilities on more than 330 planes by the end of this year.
- JetBlue currently offers limited, free Wi-Fi on its BetaBlue aircraft using LiveTV. Passengers can access such goodies as Yahoo!Mail, Gmail, and AOL. In addition, JetBlue customers can use Yahoo! instant messages and do some inflight shopping at Amazon.com’s mobile site. The airline is scheduled to provide the LiveTV service on more of its fleet later this year.
- Southwest Airlines has been testing Wi-Fi on four of its planes via Row 44 technology. It has yet to figure out pricing and will keep passengers updated on any news through it’s website.
- United Airlines will also be using the very popular Gogo Inflight technology as it plans to test Wi-Fi service between their New York and California route later this year. in the second half of this year.
- As of this post, some major airlines that do not offer Wi-Fi access include Continental and US Airways. But both have stated that they are looking into the new technology.
- UPDATE 5/12/09: AirTran is set to debut Wi-Fi on all of its 136 Boeing jets by late July.
