American Airlines Offers In-Flight Broadband Service for the First Time

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

American Airlines Offers In-Flight Broadband Service for the First Time

6:45 am on August 23, 2008 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Internet

American Airlines, a subsidiary of AMR Corp., started offering in-flight internet access on its long-haul domestic flights this week, making it the first U.S. airline to offer full over-the-air broadband service.

Passengers flying on American’s Being 767-200 aircraft between New York and Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco, and New York and Miami, can now order the service for the duration of their flight, at a fixed cost of $12.95.

The service is known as Gogo and is provided by AirCell. It comes with full web browsing capability, but is not VoIP-capable.

Numerous airlines have been struggling to get in on the in-flight broadband business, in hopes of differentiating themselves from the crowd in a troubled air travel industry. Delta Air Lines Inc. said earlier this month that it would soon begin rolling out Wi-Fi service for its entire domestic mainline fleet of over 330 planes, while other carriers like JetBlue and Southwest Airlines have also made strides in that direction.