In-flight WiFi poised for revival?

Ever wished you could kill time blogging your thoughts, IM-ing with your friends, messing around in social bookmarking sites, watching YouTube or just plain surfing the web … while flying?

With soaring fuel prices rendering many airlines cash strapped, one would’ve imagined implementing in-flight WiFi is an expensive gamble. But whether or not it pays off, several airlines - Southwest, American, Alaska, JetBlue, and Lufthansa - are preparing to take the gamble.

In hindsight, Boeing became the first casualty by introducing satellite-based in-flight WiFi but decided to pull the plug and terminate its Connexion Internet system in late 2006 because passengers found it too expensive at $30 per use.

That was two years ago and in that timeframe the cost of newer wireless equipment has decreased tremendously. Furthermore ultra-portable notebooks (Asus EEE for instance), wifi-enabled PDAs and smart phones has gained immense popularity of late. Therefore, it is hopeful the airlines industry could successfully revive a financially viable in-flight WiFi. I won’t mind $10 but $30 is a tad overpriced.

“Instead of sleeping off a seven-hour flight, it’ll be great if that same amount of time can be spent working online, emailing, blogging, internet messaging or simply surfing the web”, that’s the general consensus among frequent flyers, business-class in particular. However, the downside is that when you have possibly fifty passengers on board voice-chatting away at the same time, in-flight WiFi suddenly loses its appeal. While airlines have made it a policy that cell-phones won’t be allowed despite the presense of WiFi, I certainly hope voice chats are frowned upon too.