Gogo broadband takes flight with American Airlines

by Stevie Smith - Aug 21 2008, 09:18

The airborne spread of Internet access continues this week following news that prominent U.S. carrier American Airlines has penned a deal with Aircell that will give domestic passengers in-flight access to the broadband Gogo service.

According to American Airlines, which is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, it has “made history” with the introduction of Aircell’s Gogo, which it describes as “the beginning of the next wireless revolution” and the first full in-flight broadband service for the U.S. market.

Already in place for customers travelling on American’s Boeing 767-200 aircraft, the Gogo service provides complete coast-to-coast online coverage on non-stop domestic flights between New York and San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles, and New York and Miami.

“We are pleased to provide our customers with the unprecedented ability to stay connected to their family, friends and business associates on the ground via the Internet while traveling at 30,000 feet above the United States,” trumpeted Dan Garton, executive vice president of marketing for American Airlines.

“With today’s launch, American Airlines makes history as the first and only U.S. airline to offer customers full inflight Internet connectivity,” he added, “demonstrating once again our industry leadership and focus on our customers.”

Of course, the introduction of such a service doesn’t come packaged into the airfare, and those American Airlines passengers looking to take advantage of Gogo should expect to pay $12.95 USD on flights ranging over three hours, which include the carrier’s Boeing 767-200 flights.

While American Airlines is keen to stress that Gogo’s fee-based broadband includes “full Internet access” it does not include mobile phone and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services.

Aircell’s Gogo service essentially renders the aircraft cabin an airborne Wi-Fi hotspot once it has passed through a height of 10,000 feet, allowing passengers to surf the Net, receive and dispatch e-mails and instant messages, access corporate accounts, and more.

The Gogo service functions through Aircell’s air-to-ground (ATG) Broadband System and is compatible with all manner of Wi-Fi-enabled devices including notebooks (laptops), smartphones (i.e. RIM’s BlackBerry, Apple’s iPhone), and also personal digital assistants (PDAs).

“Today, U.S. air travel changes forever,” exclaimed Aircell president and CEO Jack Blumenstein, who also enthused that the groundbreaking deal with American Airlines means that “the days of being cut off from the rest of the world while in the air [have] become history.”

American Airlines is the world’s largest airline. Its American, American Eagle and AmericanConnection airlines serve 250 cities in over 40 countries with more than 4,000 daily flights. The combined network fleet numbers more than 1,000 aircraft.

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