yes!American Airlines installs high-speed Wi-Fi on 500 regional jets
American Airlines has some of the best in-flight internet on domestic flights. They also charge the most for it. But the company’s international fleet has been delayed, and Panasonic’s service is slow and outdated. And its large regional jets still come with Gogo air-to-ground service (“Slo-Go”). The airline’s small regional jets do not support Wi-Fi at all.
So while I happily fly American Airlines’ main domestic flights, I avoid regional jets whenever possible. We know that if you buy a regional jet ticket on American Airlines, you’ll lose up to several hours of productivity.
A year ago, I wrote that it was time for American Airlines to put better internet on its regional jets. It was unexpected. Delta Air Lines is making this investment, but I’m sure they’ve noticed, like me, that there are many customers who won’t book on the airline because they haven’t made this investment yet. Because Delta Airlines just announced plans to install his Wi-Fi on Delta Air Lines. Approximately 500 regional aircraft.
Starting next year, American Airlines will install high-speed internet on its two-cabin regional planes. namely the Embraer E-175, Bombardier CR7, and CR9. The 50-seat Embraer E-145 remains dark.
Small regional jets will remain dark
This process is expected to take two years to complete.
Over the next two years, the company plans to help even more customers deliver a consistent, connected in-flight experience with the upcoming rollout of high-speed Wi-Fi on the dual-class regional aircraft it operates. American Airlines is working to expand its relationship with Intelsat, with plans to equip about 500 regional aircraft with new high-speed Wi-Fi capabilities starting next year.
Regional Jet Wi-Fi will be provided by Intelsat, which acquired Gogo’s commercial business. It is the provider of American Airlines’ Airbus A320 and its legacy US Airways A319 aircraft. In my experience, it doesn’t perform as well as the ViaSat found on American Airlines’ other narrowbody aircraft. But it works “good enough” and should be fine for regional jet demands.
Large regional jets now have satellite Wi-Fi available
Americans were promised free flights. messaging When I asked them a year later why they hadn’t rolled this out, they acted like they’d never heard of it. The announcement was made without sufficient internal scrutiny, and management balked at the sacrifice. I was a little surprised that CFO Devon May agreed with this.
But when US Airways finally decided to add in-flight Wi-Fi (Gogo) more than a decade ago, they explained the delay and eventual decision:
- They couldn’t move forward because they thought it was an expense and not something they could make money from.
- Until they realized that without the internet, customers were actually canceling their reservations and losing ticket sales.
American Airlines should expect this to happen as technology overtakes large regional jets. Domestic mainline aircraft have excellent internet. Their widebody planes are not yet very popular and are not available in local planes. Now, it seems these regional jets are in dire need of attention.