Lufthansa announced plans to fit its narrow-body fleet with wifi starting in 2016. The announcement was not unexpected but it leaves some questions behind, including about the timing and reasoning for the stop-gap interim solution being used along the way.
Delta invests in China Eastern
Delta’s sphere of influence over other global airlines continues to grow. The latest move is a 3.55% stake in China Eastern. It provides Delta a leg up towards future joint venture operations, should Open Skies come to pass but is not without some interesting quirks.
JetBlue & MLB: Play Ball
With tons of bandwidth available through its satellite wifi connection JetBlue is upping the content library, adding MLB.tv live streaming on all its flights.
Friday Flyday: Chasing the Sunset Across America
It was a bit of a mess to get started thanks to PANYNJ and the JFK AirTrain. But we made the flight and it was a spectacular one. I love chasing the sun west across the globe. We caught up just in time.
Getting Giddy about Gogo GTO
Gogo took a big step towards introducing its new high-speed GTO and 2Ku satellite services this week. Passengers will (relatively) soon see a big jump in the bandwidth available on board.
More delays for Inmarsat GX in-flight internet
The high speed Inmarsat GX data network was dealt another blow this weekend as a launch failure in Kazakhstan leaves the company with much uncertainty over putting the third satellite of its constellation into place. And as it works to figure out what’s next many airline customers are, no doubt, wondering the same thing.
Bugs and quirks day one: American’s 787 in-flight entertainment + connectivity
American Airlines’ latest and greatest planes have in-flight entertainment and connectivity (IFEC) systems to match. Alas, they weren’t working so well on day one of service but hopefully those bugs are worked out quickly.
Stream from the cloud while in the clouds!
JetBlue and Amazon Prime are teaming up to offer streaming media for free while in flight. That’s a bold move given bandwidth costs but it just might work out given the changes in the economics the industry is experiencing.
Pay per byte coming to more in-flight internet plans
The days of flat-rate pricing for in-flight internet may be coming to a close. Panasonic is shifting to megabyte packages rather than per flight offerings as it seeks to make the experience more “fair” for all consumers. At least that’s what they’re saying.
Have they all given up hope for the economy cabin??
It is no secret that economy class cabins have been squeezed ever tighter in recent years. Bad news: Doesn’t seem that’s going to change any time soon. When even the designers and “blue sky” thinkers have given up hope it is hard to remain too optimistic.