After a three-year hiatus, airlines are bringing back wireless Internet service on planes, allowing business travelers to check their e-mails, browse the Web and log into their corporate networks while in flight.
There hasn't been in-flight Internet access since Boeing Co. killed a very expensive, multibillion-dollar project to wire planes all over the world with a satellite-based system.
Now several smaller Internet companies have come up with cheaper systems that apparently are working well enough for airlines to jump back in. Earlier this week, AirTran Airways, which has six departures a day at Los Angeles International Airport, said it would equip all of its 136 planes with Wi-Fi by the end of July.
The nation's largest carriers, Delta Air Lines, which operates more than 1,000 planes; and American Airlines, with more than 600 jets, are rolling the service out over the next year.
With the slump in travel, airlines see the service as a way to make up for shrinking revenues. Under American's system, passengers can begin accessing the Internet with their laptops, smart phones and hand-held PDAs once the plane reaches 10,000 feet.
The fee will be $12.95 for flights longer than three hours and $9.95 for shorter flights. Users of hand-held devices will be charged $7.95 regardless of flight time.
Virgin America has also begun offering wireless Internet service on flights between Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as well as on all flights to Boston. The airline expects to have Internet access on all its flights by summer.
The fees are similar to American's, but there also is a red-eye special of $5.95.
Leave home without it
U.S. airlines made more than $1 billion last year from fees on checked baggage -- more than double the year before -- and they're hiking the fees even more.
United Airlines, the first major carrier to charge for checked luggage, a service that had long been included in the price of a ticket, said this week it was raising the fee by $5, to $20 for the first bag and $30 for the second. Travelers who prepay online will be charged the current fee. The increase takes effect for domestic flights beginning June 10 and applies to economy tickets bought on or after May 14.
The United hike follows that of US Airways, which is increasing bag fees by $5 for those who don't prepay on its website. In July, Delta Air Lines, the world's largest carrier and one of the busiest at LAX, will begin charging international passengers a $50 fee to check a second bag. The fee is the first on overseas flights by a major U.S. airline.
