Virgin America first airline to offer in-flight internet service on all its planes

Virgin America, the low-cost airline based in California, the United States, announced that, as of May 21, 2009, it became the first and the only airline to offer in-flight internet service on every flight.The airline said that passengers on any of Virgin America’s 100 daily flights have the option to surf the Web, check e-mail, or log on to their corporate VPN.

And, this they can do sitting in their seats at an altitude of 37,000 feet. 

Porter Gale, vice-president of marketing for Virgin America, said, “With power outlets at every Virgin America seat, Aircell’s Gogo has now turned our planes into Wi-Fi hotspots and home offices in the air.” 

Virgin America said it was using Aircell’s Gogo broadband in-flight internet service on all of its flights. 

Virgin America offers several pricing options for the use of the in-flight Wi-Fi service. It will charge $12.95 for daytime flights of over 3 hours, $9.95 for daytime flights of less than 3 hours, $5.95 for red-eye flights, and $7.95 for hand-held devices. 

Aircell’s Gogo service was the exclusive winner of a licence from the United States Federal Communications Commission in 2006 to build a mobile-broadband network for commercial and business aviation. 

Virgin America had started out the in-flight wireless internet service on its flights between New York and San Francisco. 

Virgin America, which began services on August 8, 2007, flies to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., New York, Seattle, San Diego, Boston, Las Vegas, and Orange County. In all, it has 28 aircraft. 

Virgin America is a United States-controlled and operated carrier and it is a company fully separate from the British airline Virgin Atlantic. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group has a minority share in Virgin America. 

The United States-based American Airlines, owned by AMR Corporation, has announced that it is installing Gogo in over 300 of its planes in the US in the next two years.

Delta Air Lines, which had said in 2008 that it would be the first of the major US-based airlines to equip its entire domestic fleet with the in-flight internet service, at present has Wi-Fi on about 130 of its aircraft.

Delta says that it hopes to equip all its 500 aircraft with in-flight internet late in 2010.