Why is it taking U.S. airlines so long to offer in-flight Wi-Fi?
Skift Take
Airlines juggle a commitment to outfitting their jets with Wi-Fi alongside bankruptcy, remaining profitable, and finding time to take aircraft off the runway. The process is slow, but Wi-Fi will eventually be ubiquitous on airlines used by business travelers.
Over 82 flights travel between New York City and Los Angeles every day transporting executives and employees to client meetings and deal signings. Of the 82 flights between the two cities, there's a 67 percent chance that the business traveler will jump on a jet with Wi-Fi if randomly electing a flight.*
This is a much stronger statistic than the overall ratio of WiFi-enabled domestic flights in the sky today. Only 31 percent of the approximately 12,890 domestic non-stop flights that take off in the U.S. every weekday offer Internet access, according to data compiled by Routehappy.
[caption id="" align="alignright" width="465"] Wi-Fi access on direct weekday flights between New York and Los Angeles.[/caption]
Routehappy broke down the percentage of daily flights equipped with Wi-Fi by airline for Skift; however, the chart doesn’
