Seven domestic airlines have agreed to a promotion with GoGo Inflight that offers free Facebook access during the month of February. Virgin America, Delta, AirTran, American, US Airways, United and Alaska Airlines have all signed on. Facebook will be free for all WiFi passengers, but those who want to access other internet sites other than Facebook will still be required to pay from $4.95 for short flights, up to $12.95 for longer ones.
In an effort to jumpstart the WiFi usage on flights, GoGo came up with this effort. It is reported that inflight use of the Internet is not everything the airlines had hoped for when they equipped their fleets with this capability.
According to GoGo, Facebook is the #2 destination for surfers on airline inflight Internet connections. Email is the #1 place onboard surfers go. GoGo is one of the largest operators and has a lot of skin in the game. It currently provides WiFi on more than 1,100 aircraft and is also available on-board more than
5,000 private aircraft.
This period of trying to find the optimum consumer pricing and the proper mix of free and paid Web connections to encourage inflight Web surfing is interesting. Southwest Airlines is in the process of installing their inflight WiFi systems that will provide a series of free entertainment and information channels, but that will require payments when passengers use the Web to do personal surfing.
In a way, the Southwest solution is an elegant way to provide inflight entertainment to its passengers using computers, netbooks and smartphones without installing an inflight entertainment center. The blend of entertainment and information with paid Internet connections may make the entire entertainment environment a profit center rather than an additional cost.
Time will tell. But, all airlines and inflight Web providers are struggling with a workable solution to give passengers what they say they want, but are slow on the uptake.
Photo: from www.electronstuff.com
Charlie Leocha is the President of Travelers United. He has been working in Washington, DC, for the past 14 years with Congress, the Department of Transportation, and industry stakeholders on travel issues. He was the first consumer representative to the Advisory Committee for Aviation Consumer Protections appointed by the Secretary of Transportation from 2012 through 2018.
