American Airlines today launched wireless inflight Internet access across its 15-plane Boeing 767-200 fleet, serving mostly transcontinental routes.
American said customers traveling between New York and San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami will be able to access the service for $12.95 per flight, "enabling passengers to surf the Web, check any e-mail, instant message, access a corporate VPN and more," American said in a statement. The carrier in January began testing the system with inflight connectivity provider Aircell
(BTNonline, Jan. 22).
Aircell president and CEO Jack Blumenstein in a statement today said, "American Airlines is the first to bring inflight Internet to market," though the connectivity provider also has an agreement to install the service throughout Delta Air Lines' domestic fleet, scheduled to appear on planes beginning this fall
(BTNonline, Aug. 5).
Alaska Airlines, Continental Airlines, JetBlue Airways, Southwest Airlines and Virgin America in the past year also have embarked on plans to roll out some level of domestic onboard connectivity options
(BTNonline, Feb. 4).