I am kind of getting tired of all the extra fees making the news now-a-days. But this fee, I wouldn’t mind paying (I am guess it won’t be free). Quite a few airlines in the next year are going to be offering passengers different levels of internet access. I know I would love to have the ability to surf the web and kill a few hours while flying. Below is a list taken right from the Washington Post of what airlines are planning to do:
Delta: Plans Internet service on its entire fleet of 330 domestic aircraft by summer 2009, starting with 75 by the end of the year.
Northwest: Delta, which is buying Northwest, said it will equip Northwest planes with Internet service after the merger is approved.
American: Placing 15 jets in a three- to-six-month Internet service trial program. No launch date yet, but “dress rehearsals” were conducted on two flights in June.
JetBlue: Offered WiFi on one A320 in December. It allows e-mail, messaging and shopping on Amazon.com, but not Web surfing.
Southwest and Alaska Airlines: Testing a system that relies on satellites rather than cellphone towers. No date given for start of service.
Virgin America: The airline expects to begin testing Aircell Internet service in the fall and roll it out on its entire fleet by end of the first quarter, 2009.
Continental: Announced in January that it planned to offer onboard WiFi access using a satellite-based service starting in 2009, but the airline says it is still testing, which could push back the start date.
Source: WashingtonPost Image: neb_boy
