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Journalism of Courage
After many years of halting starts and hundreds of millions of dollars in investment,in-flight Wi-Fi is finally coming into its own,with 8,700 US domestic flights,38% of the total,now offering internet connectivity,according to a report by Routehappy.com,a website that ranks thousands of daily flights by quality of comfort and amenities.
It remains to be seen,however,how viable in-flight Wi-Fi will be as a business though Gogo,which leads the field with systems on more than 80% of all Wi-Fi-enabled flights in North America,had an initial public offering on Friday. Gogo,which has its air-to-ground-based system in more than 1,900 airplanes flying domestically,plans to use proceeds of the stock offering partly to finance a planned international rollout using Ku-band satellite technology,which allows the service to work over oceans. That will enable the company to sell its services on overseas flights.
Still,not all supporters measure the fledgling in-flight Wi-Fi business by an admittedly sluggish current rate of use,known as take rate. With a rapidly growing number of passengers carrying Wi-Fi-enabled smartphones and tablets,and with signals coming from the Federal Aviation Administration that restrictions may be eased on the use of such devices during taxiing,take-off and landing,airlines that fail to offer in-flight connectivity will most likely be at a competitive disadvantage,said Mary Kirby,the editor in chief of Airline Passenger Experience,a magazine and website.
In-flight connectivity has become a cost of doing business for airlines, Kirby said.
The take rate is no longer a useful measurement, added John Walton,the director of data for Routehappy. What matters is the idea that you can get online when you want to get online.
