Inflight wi-fi setback

Two-thirds of British travellers are not prepared to pay for inflight wi-fi access, according to the annual Industry Report, released at WTM London last week. Of 1,000-plus people asked if they would, a resounding 67% said no.

Nearly three in ten (29%) of those asked said they would be interested in the service on long-haul flights, with one in ten willing to pay on short-haul flights. 

The UK-based findings are in sharp contrast to the international Inflight Connectivity Survey from Inmarsat and GfK, which aggregated responses from 9,000 travellers in 18 countries. 

In interesting reading for airlines that have invested heavily in inflight wi-fi capabilities for their fleets, that survey found 77% of passengers overall would pay for inflight connectivity on short-haul flights with 89% willing to pay on long-haul flights.

The drive towards inflight access in Europe and the UK is being led by the long-haul full-service carriers, with Virgin Atlantic announcing recently it is the first airline in Europe to offer wi-fi on all flights.

Among other airlines, British Airways is rolling out wi-fi on its flights, including short-haul, while Emirates says it is committed to having wi-fi on every aircraft it operates.

http://london.wtm.com

Index/Home page
 

OUR READERS' FINEST WORDS (All times and dates are GMT)

All comments are filtered to exclude any excesses but the Editor does not have to agree with what is being said. 100 words maximum