Availability Will Spread Through MD-80, B737-800 Fleets
The passengers have spoken... and they want their Wi-Fi.
American Airlines is taking its high-altitude experiment with
inflight web access out of the trial stage and has decided to
install Gogo Inflight Internet on more than 300 domestic aircraft
over the next two years.
As ANN reported, American was the first US
airline to launch the Gogo service last August. Since then,
thousands of customers traveling on 15 of American's Boeing 767-200
aircraft have enjoyed Inflight Internet service primarily on
nonstop flights between New York JFK and San Francisco, Los
Angeles, and Miami.
American will install the Aircell system on its domestic MD-80
and Boeing 737-800 aircraft fleets, beginning with 150 MD-80
aircraft this year.
"We are excited to be able to offer the Gogo high-speed service
to customers on other aircraft within the American Airlines
domestic fleet, starting with the MD-80s," said Dan Garton,
American's Executive Vice President-Marketing. "Our trial over the
past six months offered customers the choice to remain connected to
work, home or elsewhere when flying on American Airlines. And it
also gave us the ability to study customers' willingness to take
advantage of high-speed, onboard connectivity and to gauge how the
service performed technically in a variety of settings over an
extended period of time. We are pleased that the results were
positive and that we have decided to move forward."
Gogo turns an American Airlines flight into a Wi-Fi hotspot,
enabling passengers to surf the Web, check e-mail, send instant
messages, access a corporate VPN and more. Once the aircraft has
reached 10,000 feet, users can simply turn on their Wi-Fi enabled
devices - such as laptops, smartphones and handheld PDAs - then
open their browsers and be directed to the Gogo portal page where
they sign up and begin surfing. Gogo is powered by the Aircell
air-to-ground (ATG) system, which uses three small antennas
installed outside the aircraft and connects to Aircell's exclusive
nationwide mobile broadband network.
Aircell's price for the Gogo service ranges from $7.95 to $12.95
based on length of flight and whether the device is a handheld PDA
or a laptop computer.
"The passenger response to Gogo Inflight Internet has exceeded
even our own high expectations, with many people becoming frequent
users who rely on it to stay connected to the office, friends and
family in their travels," said Jack Blumenstein, President and CEO,
Aircell. "We are excited to help American Airlines expand Gogo to
the majority of its domestic fleet, enabling more of its passengers
to turn flying time into 'me time.' With Gogo, flying becomes
whatever you want it to be - productive, entertaining, informative,
you name it."
Each paid Gogo session includes full Internet, e-mail and VPN
access. Cell phone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service
use will not be available.