With all the moves recently (and there have been a lot, even before JetBlue‘s mini-suite unveiling yesterday) in the transcon premium cabin market I started thinking about just where the different airlines were in terms of competing with each other on various aspects of the service. The data I have here is compiled from a […]
Virgin America
How competition is working in favor of the passenger experience on certain US domestic routes
There are plenty of tales lamenting the race to the bottom in amenities and service for passengers in the United States. But that is not the entire story. Indeed, there are some markets where competition amongst carriers is working to increase the options available to travellers. Not only are there more choices now in these markets, the offerings are getting better.
American to launch streaming media service in-flight
American Airlines announced this week that they are extending their partnership with in-flight internet provider Aircell, the company behind the gogo service. There are two main components to the announcement, one covering internet connectivity and the other addressing streaming media. On the internet front the company has committed to expanding their gogo deployment to cover more […]
JetBlue to offer awesome in-flight broadband – eventually
JetBlue has made a big splash today with their announcement of an impending in-flight internet offering. The service, leveraging the Ka spectrum of satellite connectivity form provider ViaSat, will offer significant bandwidth and a broader coverage footprint than that of ATG provider Aircell, the company behind the gogo product. Company CEO Dave Barger sums it […]
More troubling numbers from Aircell
Yeah, it seems that beating up on Aircell and the adoption of their gogo in-flight internet service seems to be a recurring theme in the industry. But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t possibly deserved. There are a ton of questions out there about just how bad their cash flow situation is. And the answers and […]
The problem with free in-flight internet
For a while now I’ve been a rather strong proponent of the theory that paid in-flight internet isn’t going to attract enough business to survive, at least not with the current pricing scheme. I just don’t think that there are enough people out there willing to pay $8 or more per flight for the access […]
Free in-flight wifi on American Airlines
In a move that hasn’t garnered nearly the same publicity as Virgin America’s announcement that they’re teaming up with Google, American Airlines has announced that they are teaming up with Lexus to provide free wifi to users of the gogo system on their flights. The AA promo is much more limited – only 7 days […]
Great news for in-flight Internet
Two big stories out today about in-flight connectivity, both of which have me very excited. The first is an announcement from Virgin America and Google that the latter is going to be sponsoring the gogo service for a two month period – November 10 – January 15. No credit card, no restrictions. Just an email […]
LUVing WiFi at Southwest
Earlier in the month there was some big news from in-flight internet provider Row44 – they received approval from the FCC to operate their gear on airplanes in the USA. The other shoe dropped yesterday, with Southwest announcing that they are going to be equipping their entire fleet with the system. Southwest Airlines and Row […]
Potential roaming option for in-flight Internet
Word on the street is that Boingo is looking to partner with AirCell, bringing their roaming WiFi hotspot subscription service from the terminals to 30,000 feet. Right now AirCell is the provider of choice for American and Virgin America, so this won’t cover all the flying Internet options, but if it goes through it does […]