Wi-Fi is now available on even the most remote beaches in South Asia, so why has it not made its way to US air carriers?
The answer: “it has.”
Two carriers, Southwest and American, have announced onboard internet trails to start later this year.
“This follows JetBlue’s already-launched, though minimal, service, as well as previous announcements for trials from Alaska Airlines and Virgin America,” said CNET News.com
Southwest said it would begin trials this summer with high-speed Internet service on four of its 737s. This summer, American will also launch onboard Internet service on its entire fleet of coast-to-coast 767s.
Virgin America plans on rolling out the service on all of its planes.
Apparently in a conservative mood, Alaska has said it would launch a trial on only one plane.
Some observers such as Henry Harteveldt, an industry analyst at Forrester Research, predicted all airlines will soon have wi-fi.
“It will probably be two years or so before we see the vast majority of aircraft in the US with this,” Mr Harteveldt said. “But I do expect it will be on just about every airline.”
Report by David Wilkening
