Once upon a time, we were almost totally disconnected from the world when flying. No Internet, no cell phones. Yet we’ve been seeing calls for both over the past year or so. While little or no progress has been made on the cell phone front — thankfully — we’ve seen a number of airlines test out in-flight Wi-Fi services. The latest is Air Alaska, which recently equipped a Boeing 737 with wireless Internet.
As with most in-flight Wi-Fi services, Alaska Airlines is testing this out before making an official launch. Luckily for travelers, the trial will be free. Feedback will be used to determine future pricing. For now it will only be available on flights between Seattle and San Jose, but the plan is to expand it to Alaska Airline’s flights between more than 90 cities in North America.
However, with the economy in its current state, the success of these projects is not at all guaranteed. Observes Jack Gold of J. Gold Associates:
“Those formulas may not be looking as good as they did six months ago,” Gold said. In most cases, in-flight Wi-Fi costs about $10 or more per flight. In today’s economy, “It’s not a sure thing at all,” he said.
It will be a balancing act for airlines to determine a price that customers will pay, but will also cover their costs. Far, far easier said than done.
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