Skift Take

We're still in early stages of in-flight connectivity, and even earlier in consumer adoption, but bring-your-own-device is a trend that'll only grow bigger in all stages of travel.

Even as the mini-crusade about relaxing mobile ad digital device usage on airline flight continues, the deployment of Wi-Fi on U.S. domestic routes is increasing, waiting for a broader consumer adoption. Gogo, the main in-flight Wi-Fi provider in U.S., is doing its IPO to raise more cash to expand and indeed even survive as an early player in the market.

Screen Shot 2013-06-25 at 3.22.09 PMAll that said, what’re the current numbers on Wi-Fi deployment and usage on U.S. flights? The startup flight search service Routehappy has come out with a report on the state of Wi-Fi in U.S. airlines industry and some good numbers to chew on:

  • Flyers can count on Wi-­Fi on 38% of domestic US flights, covering 44% of flight time.
  • Delta, Southwest and US Airways (in that order) have the most flights with Wi-Fi.
  • Virgin America and AirTran have 100% of their fleets Wi-Fi-enabled.
  • By route, flights from LAX to SFO and JFK have the most Wi-Fi, with Atlanta-Orlando the third most connected US route.
  • International Wi-Fi is becoming a reality. 38 daily international flights from the US have Wi-Fi. A further 241 have a chance of Wi-Fi or cellular roaming.
  • In economy, 100% of Virgin America flights and all United p.s. flights with Wi-Fi have power.
    Most American Airlines flights with Wi-Fi also have power (515 out of 541 Wi-Fi equipped 200 flights).
  • By aircraft type, flyers can be most certain that they’ll have Wi-Fi when flying on the MD-90, A321 and even DC-9 planes from the 1970s.
  • SkyTeam has the most US flights with Wi-Fi, but oneworld will catch up soon.

The full report from RouteHappy, with some great information nuggets, embedded below:

smartphone

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Tags: in-flight, wi-fi

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