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airline

Singapore Airlines offers iPod-friendly skies

Every day it seems we get little closer to being fully wired--or unwired, as the case may be--in midair. And we think it's about time.

A day after iPass said it would provide in-flight Wi-Fi roaming, Singapore Airlines announced that it is now offering connectivity for iPods and iPhones on its "KrisWorld" in-flight entertainment system on its Airbus A340-500 planes, according to iLounge. That means you can plug the devices into the system with a standard 30-pin connector and then watch your own video on a personal 15.4-inch widescreen LCD (there's one at each seat … Read more

iPhone as electronic airplane boarding pass

Some airlines have been allowing BlackBerrys to be used as electronic boarding passes and soon standard cell phones will follow.

Now there is news of the iPhone being used to board a plane. Blogger Gerald Buckley writes about how he was allowed to board an American Airlines flight from San Antonio to Dallas by having the gate agent scan the bar code of the ticket on a PDF displayed on his iPhone.

Don't think you can waltz quickly to the gate by flashing your iPhone, though. Buckley makes it clear that he showed TSA his paper boarding pass to … Read more

Cheap = good

Isn't it interesting that in the latest airline quality rankings the top three spots were taken by low-cost carriers? JetBlue, Southwest and AirTran ranked the best while overall the industry had its worst ratings in twenty years.

Just goes to show that providing a leading user experience does not have to mean premium price. All three are relative start-ups compared to the likes of United and American, and they have been able to structure themselves (and therefore their) costs based on lessons learned from the older airlines.

Nevertheless, with issues like number of passengers bumped per flight, amount of … Read more

Flexible pricing coming to Ticketmaster?

Prices for airline tickets are one of life's great mysteries. A travel agent tried to explain it to me once, and without getting too detailed, it's a combination of segmentation, demand-based pricing, and ensuring that seats are filled. Segmentation's the reason why last-minute tickets cost so much--most vacationers plan far in advance, and business travelers are much more likely to accept high prices. Demand-based pricing is why it's way more expensive to take the same trip over Thanksgiving than over the second weekend in November, and why prices can fluctuate from moment to moment--as one "… Read more

American Airlines and Virgin America promise in-flight broadband

Editor's note: This blog initially misidentified the provider of JetBlue's in-flight broadband service.

In-flight broadband is coming soon for travelers on some American Airlines and Virgin America flights. But will the companies hit the right price point to attract customers?

Aircell, a company that sells air-to-ground telecommunications equipment to airlines, said this week that its in-flight broadband system will be used on some Virgin America and American Airlines flights originating from San Francisco and Los Angeles to New York and Miami.

American Airlines will initially enable 15 of its 767s with broadband, and eventually it will offer Internet … Read more

Farecast adds international airfare predictions

Farecast, the site that tells you when to buy your airline tickets to get the best price, has finally added international routes to its service. This feature would have been great back before the dollar took its tumble against world currencies, and a family dinner in Paris didn't cost $300. (See: Farecast: Out of beta, but still U.S.-only.)

The data on the service appears to be filling out slowly. While there is historical pricing for the airfares of US-Europe and US-Mexico/Caribbean city pairs, the actual fare predictions are not all there. I tried to price a … Read more

Southwest to test in-flight WiFi, but only to the first 20 passengers :-)

Southwest Airlines is experimenting with in-flight WiFi. I guess this means that the first 20 passengers to shove and push their way to the front of the line will get the WiFi. Everyone else will be hosed. :-)

Southwest says it isn't allowing cell phone calls on the service, despite the fact that the technology allows VoIP calls. Is it planning to block VoIP? It's not saying.

One question lingers: When will it put electrical outlets on the planes? It's nice to have WiFi, but somewhat useless to do so without a constant feed of electricity to … Read more

Southwest plans high-speed Internet trials

Southwest Airlines announced Wednesday that it plans to begin trials of satellite-to-airplane broadband Internet service sometime this summer.

Spokeswoman Marilee McInnis said Wednesday morning that initially Southwest plans to test the service on four planes. But because the airline's planes fly many different routes, she did not anticipate--at least not yet--that travelers would be able to plan to fly on one of those planes.

That means that in the early going at least, the service--which will allow passengers to access the Internet if they have their own Wi-Fi-enabled laptops--will be available at random.

McInnis did not say if Southwest'… Read more

Laser air defense eyed for commercial aircraft

Regardless of whether you think the airlines, the airport management companies, and the federal government are doing enough to protect passengers against on-board terrorist threats, there are still threats to a commercial airliner from the outside.

The planes are still vulnerable to, among other things, shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles, a danger that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is looking to alleviate. Late last week, defense and aerospace contractor BAE Systems said it had won a $29 million contract from the DHS to test a sensors-and-lasers system for air defense against missiles.

The multinational company plans to install its Jeteye aircraft missile defense systems … Read more