Continental Joins Inflight Wi-Fi Bandwagon

Continental Airlines plans to outfit its fleet of 21 Boeing 757-300s with wireless broadband capabilities, making it the last domestic legacy airline to embrace inflight Wi-Fi.

The carrier expects to begin rolling out the service in the second quarter of 2010 through inflight connectivity provider Aircell, which provides similar services for American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, US Airways and United Airlines, among other carriers.

Continental had held off in adopting the technology, favoring instead limited inflight connectivity offerings such as texting and e-mail enabled through the LiveTV inflight entertainment system on some flights. "We've been closely watching technology developments to offer onboard connectivity for our customers," Continental senior vice president of marketing programs Mark Bergsrud said in a statement issued on Wednesday. "We are excited to be able to offer our customers Internet service, giving them the ability to connect to colleagues, friends and family and work, learn and play while flying."

Continental is adopting Gogo's menu of pricing options, starting at $4.95 for full broadband capabilities on short-haul flights and up to $12.95 for 24-hour access on a single carrier. Aircell also offers 30-day subscription pricing.