Airlines Shouldn't Count on Millennial Travelers to Pay for In-Flight Wi-Fi

Airlines are rushing to equip aircraft with Wi-Fi believing passengers will demand connectivity onboard. But who are those customers? More importantly, do they really intend to pay for it? The mention of 'Millennials' streams from headline-grabbing service providers and industry pundits with great frequency and at higher speed than even the most advanced connectivity options. The presumption is that Millennials, as the up-and-coming generation, will view connectivity as a product differentiator, that connectivity will drive their choice of airline. But maybe not. "Wi-Fi to Millennials is like air—free," Chris Nurko, Global Chairman of FutureBrand tells us. In his view, airlines will need to give some level of free access to the service in order to meet the needs of that generation. Nurko sees an opportunity for monetisation of the technology through a tiered system. "It's the quality of oxygen that matters," he tells us, "speed and security features will matter. [Millennials] will pay for added features or for what they download. The term 'free-mium' services is what they will want [consisting of] free basic services plus premium as required." Airlines may flinch. The costs of installing the equipment to support connectivity, are high; but they might consider Norwegian when calculating their connection rates. Making Free Pay "The world is getting more and more connected," says Charlotte Holmbergh Jacobsson, Communications Manager at Norwegian. "In 2011, when we launched Wi-Fi, airplanes were one of the few places where there was no Internet. We wanted to be prepared for the future and meet the demands of the younger