Virgin America partners with Google to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi during holiday travel season

Virgin America, the low-cost airline based in California, the United States, has announced a partnership with Google in order to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi service to all of its passengers during the holiday travel season from November 10, 2009, to January 15, 2010.

During this holiday period, passengers on all fights of Virgin America can check email, gift-shop online and browse websites, a statement from Virgin America said.

It may be noted that Virgin America had, in May 2009, had become the first airline to offer Gogo in-flight internet facility on all of its flights.

Porter Gale, vice-president (marketing), Virgin America, said in the statement that the launching of the Wi-Fi service on all of planes of the airline has received very good response from the passengers.

Virgin America, according to Porter Gale, has found that business travellers and leisure travellers alike are increasingly using the in-flight internet service and that many passengers regard the availability of on-board Wi-Fi facility as one of the main factors in their flight booking decision.

Though passengers travelling on any of the over 100 flights of Virgin America

from November 10, 2009, to January 15, 2010, will enjoy free Web access via their laptops or PDAs, the Gogo in-flight service is usually priced at $12.95 for flights of over 3 hours; $9.95 for flights between 1.5 hours and 3 hours; and $5.95 for short-haul flights of less than 1.5 hours. The handheld/PDA is priced at $7.95 for flights lasting over 1.5 hours.

It was in November 2008 that Virgin America launched the Gogo in-flight internet service with the first-ever ‘air-to-ground’ video stream to YouTube Live, which was also the first official “real-world user event” of YouTube.

In May of 2009, Virgin America completed providing Wi-Fi on its entire fleet.

The airline, in June 2009, partnered with Google for the first-ever online

‘in the clouds’ Web-based ‘scavenger hunt,’ by using in-flight Wi-Fi.