Continental Takes Baby Steps With In-Flight Wi-Fi
1 February 2008Continental Airlines became the latest US airline to jump on the in-flight Wi-Fi bandwagon.
Beginning in January 2009, Continental plans to roll out free e-mail and instant messaging offered by LiveTV.
Continental passengers are supposed to be able to use the service with Wi-Fi enabled smart phones, BlackBerries and laptops to connect to work, friends and family via Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Messenger and BlackBerry e-mail and BlackBerry Messenger services.
The new services are to be installed on Continental’s fleet of Boeing 737 New Generation aircraft including the 737-700, -800, -900 and -900ER aircraft and the Boeing 757-300.
Compared to the recently announced Wi-Fi initiatives by American Airlines, Virgin America and Southwest Airlines, Continental appears to be moving slowly on its in-flight online initiatives.
For instance, Continental’s Wi-Fi service does not include browsing or Virtual Private Network capabilities. Also, apart from Yahoo and Blackberry, passengers cannot connect to other e-mail or instant messaging services.
Continental executives said the airline’s Wi-Fi offerings addresses what passengers are asking for.
Continental’s managing director of brand marketing Kevin McKenna said the LiveTV platform could be extended to add other online services later.
Besides e-mail and instant messaging, Continental also intends to offer 36 channels of live, in-flight satellite TV programming from DirecTV at every seat for $6 for the duration of the flight to Economy Class passengers.
The DirecTV service is free for First Class passengers.
Continental’s in-flight entertainment system is also expected to offer passengers a moving map and other stored information and entertainment content.
“Our customers want more inflight entertainment and communication options,” said Continental’s CEO Larry Kellner. “We have been closely watching technology developments and are delighted to have teamed up with LiveTV to offer live television programming and communication to our customers.”
LiveTV will install and maintain the Wi-Fi services.
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