{"id":67371,"date":"2017-09-01T19:56:47","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T11:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/airlines-still-considering-the-value-of-in-flight-wi-fi\/"},"modified":"2017-09-01T19:56:47","modified_gmt":"2017-09-01T11:56:47","slug":"airlines-still-considering-the-value-of-in-flight-wi-fi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/airlines-still-considering-the-value-of-in-flight-wi-fi\/","title":{"rendered":"Airlines Still Considering the Value of In-Flight Wi-Fi"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Decisions for airlines making investments in providing in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers are strongly driven by the segment of the industry they operate within, as Via Satellite\u2019s<\/em> sister publication Avionics<\/em> learned at the 2017 Boyd International Aviation Forecast Summit (IAFS). Executives from American Airlines<\/strong>, Allegiant<\/strong>, Spirit Airlines<\/strong>, Tap Portugal<\/strong> and Sun Country<\/strong> provided much different perspectives on investing in aircraft connectivity both for flight operational and passenger usage.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to have Wi-Fi,\u201d said Don Casey, senior vice president of revenue for American Airlines, during a question and answer session with reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s a core expectation for customers, we think about it that way. Our objective is to create a living-room experience in the air.\u201d He noted that the first-generation Gogo<\/strong> technology featured on the majority of American\u2019s domestic fleet today is notably slower than the living-room experience that the airline would like to establish.<\/p>\n

American\u2019s most recent investment in providing faster Wi-Fi for passengers stems from a 2016 selection of ViaSat<\/strong> to equip its Boeing 737 MAX fleet with Ka-band in-flight internet service. The California-based satellite service provider claims it has more capacity in orbit than any other In-Flight Connectivity (IFC) provider. The airline\u2019s first 737 MAX will enter into commercial service at the end of November.<\/p>\n

According to a recent CNN report, American has also said that it\u2019s \u201ctaking bids to provide satellite internet service for about 400 of its planes that now have the ground-based Gogo service.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest initiative we have is going to be high-speed Wi-Fi,\u201d said Casey. \u201cGetting to that high-speed internet is one of the biggest customer-facing technology changes we\u2019re making.\u201d<\/p>\n

Low-cost carriers, though, have expressed different perspectives on featuring in-flight Wi-Fi service on their aircraft. While low-cost carriers represented at the 2017 IAFS event acknowledge that a significant portion of passengers on long-haul flights, and especially those sitting in business class cabins, do want Wi-Fi, it\u2019s not necessarily a necessity for them.<\/p>\n

At IAFS, there were a total of four low-cost carriers represented. Spirit Airlines was the only one to reveal that it\u2019s moving closer to signing a deal to equip its entire Airbus A320 fleet with Wi-Fi. Spirit currently operates an all-Airbus<\/strong> fleet of 104 A320s. Tap Portugal already features in-flight Wi-Fi provided by OnAir<\/strong> on its long-haul Airbus aircraft.<\/p>\n

Allegiant Air and Sun Country however, both told Via Satellite\u2019s<\/em> sister publication Avionics<\/em> that they\u2019re not currently in a position to invest in in-flight Wi-Fi. Allegiant Air Senior Vice President Lukas Johnson, for example, said the Las Vegas-based low-cost carrier is currently investing more than $1 billion into a new fleet of 100 Airbus A320s and A319s, which will replace its retiring fleet of MD-80s. But the new aircraft will not feature Wi-Fi, as Allegiant has not received major passenger interest in it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur average flights are around two hours, with virtually no business traffic,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cPeople are usually just going out to the beach or for leisure travel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson said the cost of operating internet service simply would not be worth it if not enough passengers are using the service.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not on the radar for us,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s very different than if you\u2019re flying trans-continental with business class passengers and it\u2019s a requirement to have on your plane.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, Minnesota-based Sun Country Airlines shared a similar perspective on investing in in-flight Wi-Fi service. Sun Country operates a fleet of 22 Boeing 737-700s\/800s and provides passengers with a seven-inch tablet featuring television shows, movies and gaming, but no connection to the internet.<\/p>\n

\u201cConnectivity to the internet? I don\u2019t think that\u2019s for us right now,\u201d said Sun Country Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jude Bricker, who took over as head of Sun Country in July after serving as executive VP of Allegiant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still studying Wi-Fi, but I don\u2019t know if we\u2019re ready to commit to that today,\u201d said Bricker, adding that Sun Country also has found that seat-back devices are no longer economical since most passengers now carry their own personal devices on board.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published in Avionics, a Via Satellite sister publication. It has been edited to better serve our audience.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decisions for airlines making investments in providing in-flight Wi-Fi for passengers are strongly driven by the segment of the industry they operate within, as Via Satellite\u2019s sister publication Avionics learned at the 2017 Boyd International Aviation Forecast Summit (IAFS). Executives from American Airlines, Allegiant, Spirit Airlines, Tap Portugal and Sun Country provided much different perspectives on investing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67371"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}