The Canadian airline scene has witnessed plenty of changes over the years. Here's a development that everyone reading this blog will likely welcome.
Illinois-based Aircell announced a couple weeks ago that they were in talks with both Air Canada and Westjet about offering their in-flight broadband service. It turns out discussions with Air Canada were a little farther along.
As early as next year, Air Canada passengers heading to the US west coast will be able to check email and surf the Web using in-flight services. Air Canada will rollout Aircell's Gogo Wi-Fi system on a handful of its Airbus A319 planes. Air Canada expects the initial deployment to be completed by spring 2009, primarily on west coast-bound flights to San Francisco and Los Angeles.
American Airlines launched the Gogo Wi-Fi service last month and Peter Ha of CrunchGear was one of the first to live-blog a flight. Let's hope Air Canada doesn't make a Rogers-like error when pricing their shiny new service. American Airlines is selling the Gogo Flight Pass for $12.95 - which seems fair considering what travelers expect to pay at hotels and coffee shops.
Rob Lewis
Rob is the President of Techvibes Media Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Techvibes.com.
His diverse background includes stints in International Trade Finance, Web Development, and Enterprise Software and he is a graduate of the University of British Columbia, British Columbia Institute of Technology, and Simon Fraser University.
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