Gone are the days when “staying connected” was governed by wires.  The wireless syndrome has stormed in our lives in the form of Wi-Fi homes, hotels, trains, bookshops and coffee shops. It is not surprising that all the major airlines have been strongly inspired to render Wi-Fi services in air when even the Mom and Pop stores on land are aspiring to go Wi-Fi. The critical hypothesis by these airlines that their air passengers will regard airborne Wi-Fi as a perk has been questioned and the alacrity of the air travelers to spend an extra dime to enjoy a Wi-Fi journey has been challenged.

Despite all the speculation, most of the domestic airlines are upbeat about setting up Wi-Fi on their aircrafts. Aircell who started their Wi-Fi legacy with American Airlines, has now installed its land-based Gogo Wi-Fi service in response to the growing demand of several airlines to establish Wi-Fi on their 526 aircrafts. Its competitor Row44 recently signed a deal with Southwest Airlines to install its satellite-based system in all of Southwest’s fleet of about 540 Boeing 737s. The Wi-Fi installation costs per plane have reported to exceed beyond $100,000, which explains why Wi-Fi service cannot be made available for free in air. 

The fact that the Wi-Fi service is limited by conservative battery life and unavailability of power ports on aircrafts does not seem to daunt the airline executives. The rising trend observed in the airline industry to adopt Wi-Fi signifies that the prominent air carriers have tapped the potential of progressing towards less power guzzling options like notebook computers and hand-held devices instead of laptops, in their air commuters. 

Even though the recent statistics have revealed the “take rate”- the percentage of air passengers who opt to pay for a connection, as not a significant Return On Investment for the airlines taking up Wi-Fi, a survey commissioned by the Wi-Fi Alliance, (a trade group representing companies in the wireless industry), conducted by Wakefield Research, polled 480 frequent business travelers, including 150 who have used in-flight Wi-Fi, from Aug. 11 to Aug. 18. 76 percentage of air travelers said that their airline decision-making is based on Wi-Fi availability, more than 50 percent expressed that they would be willing to shift a flight by one day to get on a Wi-Fi enabled plane. Also, the readiness of half of the business travelers to choose red-eye flights only to be reachable during their journey, is indeed noteworthy

All the major airlines, with the exception of Continental who is still toying with the idea, have announced their plans to go Wi-Fi. It is intriguing to know that even the smaller air carriers that cater to light travel itineraries similar to Tours4Fun’s Niagara Falls Tours from New York or Washington, D.C. Tours from New York, have their fleets accredited with Wi-Fi. 

The airborne Wi-Fi business model is still a “work in progress” and it will be interesting to watch how the airline industry addresses questions like – What will be the take rate? How many people will be wiling to pay for Wi-Fi? Will it be a free service for people traveling by business class or first class?

Tours4Fun believes that the assimilation of Wi-Fi in the world of travel and tourism is truly remarkable. We are excited to find out if airborne Wi-Fi will elevate your air travel experience. Help us understand your Wi-Fi quotient by responding to our “Air Wi-Fi” poll questions-

   1. How much would you pay for Wi-Fi service while traveling by air?
   2. Should the air travelers be charged by the length of the flight or one flat fee?
   3. Does the idea of flying Wi-Fi for your next vacation from New York to Niagara Falls appeal to you?