Virgin America will add in-flight broadband Internet service

Virgin America, the San Francisco-based carrier that started flying last month, said it is teaming up with AirCell LLC to offer air-to-ground broadband Internet service to passengers starting sometime in 2008. According to Virgin America, the Internet access and email capability will be available not only through passengers’ Web-enabled devices like laptops, PDAs, BlackBerries or smart phones, but also through each aircraft’s individual seatback video screen/entertainment system, called Red. “Guests will be able to check and send email from their seatbacks through Red’s TALK – the airline’s onbaord chat system – using popular instant messaging services such as MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo! Skype and AIM,” a spokesman said. AirCell is the same company that American Airlines will use to test a similar service.