All Majors Outfitting Planes With Inflight Internet

In the year that has followed American Airlines' August 2008 launch of wireless broadband onboard 15 transcontinental aircraft, nearly all major U.S. carriers have moved to outfit some or all of their fleets with inflight Internet. In recent weeks, US Airways became the last of the majors to detail plans for onboard connectivity, AirTran Airways completed its fleetwide rollout, Delta Air Lines crossed the 200-plane threshold and inflight Internet provider Row 44 gained final approval to operate in U.S. airspace.

US Airways president Scott Kirby in July said US Airways would bring Wi-Fi to "all our A321 aircraft," beginning in early 2010. US Airways is the latest airline to announce plans to roll out inflight wireless Internet capabilities with connectivity provider Aircell, whose users include AirTran, American, Delta, United Airlines and Virgin America.

AirTran in July became the first major U.S. carrier to roll out inflight Internet fleetwide, installing the Aircell system on more than 100 aircraft. AirTran senior vice president of marketing and planning Kevin Healy last month said the carrier has seen "steady increase" in passengers using the system, though there is more interest in using Wi-Fi on long-haul flights.

Delta at the end of July offered Aircell's service on 219 aircraft. The carrier expects to roll out the system to the remaining 32 percent of its pre-merger domestic fleet by year-end, and plans to begin installing it on its Northwest subsidiary's U.S. aircraft in October.

Aircell competitor Row 44—which uses a satellite-based system to enable inflight wireless access, compared with Aircell's air-to-ground system—has gained users in Southwest Airlines and Alaska Airlines and this month gained a permanent license from the Federal Communications Commission.

"We have been operating on a Supplemental Temporary Authority, which was restricted as to the number of equipped planes that we could fly at the same time," Row 44 CEO John Guidon said. "This is a blanket authority for up to 1,000 identical setups onboard aircraft. If we go beyond that, which we hope to, then we'd have to go back to the FCC." The license allows the company to expand beyond its four-plane Southwest pilot and one-plane Alaska Airlines pilot.

Row 44 already has approvals to operate its satellite system in Mexico, Canada and some European countries, Guidon said, and is setting its sights on markets where Aircell's air-to-ground system does not extend.

"There is a lot of interest from airlines that fly over the border, wherever it may be: to Hawaii, to Europe, on transatlantic routes and transpacific routes," Guidon said. "Also, there's a lot of intra-European traffic." He said Norwegian Air Shuttle is slated to install the Row 44 system by year-end.

Meanwhile, JetBlue Airways and Continental Airlines offer some limited Internet capabilities, such as e-mail, through the LiveTV inflight entertainment system, but neither offers full broadband wireless on their flights.