Fee--based service will go into 330 aircraft

Delta Air Lines is the latest carrier to announce that it plans to offer broadband WiFi service to its customers. Delta said it has signed on Aircell as the vendor for its service – the same company that is working with American Airlines and Virgin America – and that it expects to have its entire domestic fleet of 330 aircraft equipped with Internet connectivity by next summer. Aircell’s in-flight system, brand-named Gogo (www.gogoinflight.com), will let Delta flyers with WiFi-enabled laptops and other devices access the Internet, corporate VPNs, corporate and personal email accounts, SMS texting and instant messaging services, Delta said. The airline will charge access fees of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less, or $12.95 on longer flights. The first installations will go in this fall, starting with Delta’s MD88s and MD90s, and will eventually be expanded to 737s, 757s and 767-300s used in domestic service, making it available on some 1,000 flights a day. Delta said that besides being cost-effective, the Aircell system is “extremely light, requires minimal space on the aircraft, and is installed overnight.” In-flight Internet technology (which will not permit voice phone calls, by the way) is currently in the testing or planning stages at several airlines, including American, JetBlue, Virgin America, Alaska, Southwest and Continental.