United and Continental plan to roll out in-flight Wi-Fi during 2012

November 4, 2011 By Mike Flacy

With more airline passengers looking for a way to pass the time when flying across the country, United and Continental are pushing forward plans to enable Wi-Fi across the fleet.

Announced out of Chicago earlier today, United Continental Holdings announced a partnership with Panasonic Avionics Corporation to bring in-flight Wi-Fi access to passengers of over 300 United and Continental flights starting around the middle of 2012. The satellite-based Wi-Fi technology will eventually cover the entire fleet of planes by the end of 2015. According to officials at the company, Panasonic’s Ku-band satellite technology offers faster speeds than air-to-ground connectivity which is the technology used by Gogo Inflight Internet service. Some of the companies that use Gogo’s service include U.S. Airways, American Airlines, Delta, AirTran and Virgin America.

With the higher speeds, United and Continental plan to wireless streaming of video content. While the airlines may force customers into watching a selection of in-flight entertainment choices over the Wi-Fi connection, it’s possible that the higher speeds will allow access to applications like Netflix or Hulu Plus on a tablet, smartphone or laptop computer. The Panasonic system will be installed within Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777 and 787 aircraft as well as Airbus 319 and 320 planes. While this announcement covers the entire fleet of planes between the two companies, Continental Airlines previously announced that 200 planes currently equipped with DirecTV access would start receiving the Wi-Fi upgrade as early as January 2012.

United Continental Holdings didn’t indicate any pricing model for the Wi-Fi service as of yet. Costs for Wi-Fi service on flights typically range from about $10 to $50 for laptop access and between $5 to $20 for access on a mobile device like a smartphone. JetBlue is one of the few airlines that offers free Wi-Fi access, however users are limited to instant messaging, email and light Web browsing. Southwest doesn’t provide full Internet access on flights, but the Wi-Fi equipped planes allow travelers to connect to a portal that includes games, shopping and a flight status tool. It’s surprising that more airlines aren’t offering free Wi-Fi service to attract more customers and fill typically empty seats.

Showing 2 comments

heaveho at 10:22am 5th November 2011 What empty seats? Your comment has me thinking you haven't flown lately. Empty seats are pretty rare these days. The airlines really seem to have a 'relative' handle on supply and demand. I just used the Gogo service on a Delta flight from Nassau to Atlanta, I was working on a client matter and I was impressed and how fast the connection was, and I was downloading client video files to begin an urgent project. Glad UAL / Continental are finally addressing wi-fi for their soon to be combined fleet. Now, that I've actually used it I want wi-fi access on all my flights. Have to stay connected to keep the clients happy.
1. Ian Bell at 10:46am 5th November 2011 I fly Delta from Portland to NY every three weeks and there is no way I could download videos on the GoGo service. It cuts out on me all the time. They have a ways to go IMO.I would tend to agree on your reply about the empty seats. The only time I find there are empty seats are on either flight late at night, or in the middle of the week.Welcome to the site by the way! :)