OAG Travel News

With the deployment of high-speed Internet onboard aircraft, increased data delivery options, and cell phone trials, 2008 is being considered the year of connectivity by professionals in the inflight entertainment and communication industry. The CEOs of six connectivity companies leaders in the development and implementation of this breakthrough will appear together at the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) 29th Annual Conference & Exhibition, Wednesday September 10, 2008.

AirAsiaX AirAsiaX, a low-cost airline operating a single-class Airbus A330 is based in Kuala Lumpur. There is no embedded in-flight entertainment system, so AirAsiaX rents the 7-inch Portable Media Players for about US$10 on routes to China and Australia.

American Airlines, Gogo by Aircell Marking the beginning of the next wireless revolution, American Airlines made history today with the launch of the mobile broadband service, Gogo provided by Aircell. Effective today, customers traveling on American's Boeing 767-200 aircraft can access complete coast-to-coast coverage on nonstop flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami. American Airlines makes history as the first and only U.S. airline to offer customers full inflight Internet connectivity. Aircell's Gogo will be available to customers as a fee-based service in all cabins. Aircell will charge $12.95 on flights more than three hours, which include American's Boeing 767-200 flights. Each paid Gogo session includes full Internet access. Cell phone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) services are not available. Gogo turns an American Airlines flight into a Wi-Fi hotspot, enabling passengers to surf the Web, check any email, Instant Message, 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 PDAs, 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) Broadband System, which runs over Aircell's exclusive nationwide network.

Delta Air Lines Delta Airlines proclaimed earlier this month that it will put Gogo service on 330 aircraft. That's Delta's entire domestic fleet. The goal is to put service in all planes by this time next year, with a few before the end of this year. Virgin America Airlines also plans to install Gogo service on all its jets. The plan as announced last year is for it to happen by the end of 2008. Not everyone seems to believe it will be as rosy as all that. The Washington Post carried a story earlier this week, recalling what happened to Connexion by Boeing—no one wanted to pay for the Wi-Fi at $30 a ride, said author Joe Brancatelli. He also claimed that the FAA paperwork that will grant Delta and Virgin America the okay to install the Aircell equipment was just submitted, indicating that the announced schedule for the two airlines "seems overly aggressive." Cruz says that's not the airlines' job to file the paperwork, it's his, and adds, "I did it months ago. That effort is underway... It's in the last stages of design." Once designed for a specific aircraft, he says installation of the 150 pounds of equipment can take place in six hours: "If they get in at 11, by the next day at 6 a.m., they're done." reported PC magazine.

digEcor digEcor announcing the sale of their XT product to Blue Pacific is a very hot topic indeed. digEcor has thousands of the digEplayer 5500s in service around the world, including Pacific Blue who is planning on upgrading their units to the digEplayers. The company claims low price drove the win and will be offering a hardware and content deal to the folks down under, serving flights in Australia and New Zealand. Pacific Blue multi-year contract extension will more than double the past number of flights served by their previous contract. One of the main reasons that Pacific Blue selected the digEplayer XT is because of the flexible leasing program that digEcor offers. The result - Pacific Blue is upgrading its PMP program at a price that exceeds expectations." Pacific Blue will be renting the XTs to passengers with content provided by digEcor which will include: movies, TV, music, music videos, and video games. The company also offers gambling software and a feature we really liked - executive and other book summaries (as well as books) on screen and in audio format

JetBlue Airways JetBlue was the other big winner in the spectrum auction with Aircell in 2006, and there's a chance its in-flight entertainment subsidiary, LiveTV, will take over the AirFone business from Verizon. JetBlue is actively testing its own ATG network. For now it is on a single plane, called the BetaBlue, and it doesn't offer full access to the Web. Passengers can get only Yahoo! mail and IMs on laptops; it also works with BlackBerry for e-mail. Of course, ATG is not the only way to connect a plane to the tubes of the Internet. Satellite was the original favorite it's what Connexion used and it isn't dead yet. A company called Row 44 is working with Southwest Airlines to install Internet service. Row 44 says it can also support cell phone and VoIP use on planes, but Southwest said earlier this year that the airline has "not embraced voice calling" because passengers aren't really into it. Alaska Air is also reportedly working with Row 44 which makes sense, as it'll be tough for its flights out of the continental 48 states to work with nonexistent towers in Canada and the Pacific Ocean reported PC magazine.

OpenSkies British Airways OpenSkies, which uses IMS 7-inch Portable Media Player throughout the aircraft in a three-class configuration, began flying in June between London and New York's JFK. Five more OpenSkies aircraft are scheduled in 2009.

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