US Airways joins growing list of airlines with Wi-Fi

Today, US Airways launched Gogo in-flight Wi-Fi service on five aircraft yesterday, joining eight other airlines working with wireless service provider Aircell.

US Airways plans to expand the Wi-Fi service from the initial five Airbus A321 aircraft to all 51 A321s by June 1, according to a statement from the airline and Aircell. Prices for Wi-Fi access to the Internet from a laptop, netbook or mobile device start at $4.95 for up to 90 minutes on mainland U.S. flights and will go up to $12.95 for more than three hours for a laptop or netbook.

Gogo is offered on about 700 planes, including all AirTran Airways and Virgin America flights and select Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines flights. Aircell is also working with Alaska Airlines and Continental Airlines to add Wi-Fi, with Alaska testing Gogo on one plane, and Continental expected to go live in the summer, a spokeswoman said.

Initially, US Airways will put a Wi-Fi symbol on the outside of a Gogo-equipped plane to alert passengers, along with displaying the symbol throughout the cabin. By late June, passengers will be able to tell whether Wi-Fi is available on a specific flight when booking travel online.

First-time Gogo users get one free session through June 1, and from June 1 to June 8 free access will be available to everyone onboard a Wi-Fi-equipped flight.

New franchise between Aer Lingus and Aer Arann

Aer Lingus started it's first regional flight today as the franchise agreement between Aer Arann, Ireland’s regional airline, and Aer Lingus, the national carrier, began on 12 routes from Dublin and Cork.

There will be 12 routes, 6 of which will operate from Dublin to the UK, with the remaining 6 serving the UK and France from Cork. The new route network increases frequency on busy business and leisure services between Dublin and both Glasgow and Edinburgh, while also offering direct connectivity from a number of UK regions to Aer Lingus trans-Atlantic services.

3 new routes will be among the 12; Dublin to Doncaster-Sheffield; Dublin to Durham Tees Valley, and Cork to Glasgow. The remaining 9 routes are services that were previously operated by either Aer Arann or Aer Lingus. There are also several domestic low cost flights in Ireland.

At Dublin Airport today for the first departures was Aer Arann Chief Executive Paul Schütz who welcomed the franchise agreement saying;

“With our franchise partner we have created a product that offers a customer-focussed schedule with increased frequency and both regional and trans-Atlantic connectivity. The additional flights on existing routes combined with new direct services linking regional centres in the UK with Ireland offers a significant boost to both business and the tourism industry at a time when it is badly needed.

Our combined brand power and quality products make it an excellent service for passengers and we look forward to welcoming both new and existing Aer Arann and Aer Lingus customers on board our flights from today”, he continued.

The Aer Lingus Regional service is operated by Aer Arann ATR 72-500 aircraft and crew. All franchise flights are sold and distributed through aerlingus airline website .

The new agreement significantly increases Aer Lingus presence in the Ireland-UK market including services to Ireland from Bristol, Blackpool, Cardiff, Doncaster/Sheffield, Durham, Glasgow and Edinburgh.

In addition to the UK routes, new seasonal services from Cork to Jersey in the Channel Islands and La Rochelle in France will begin operating in May.

This agreement try to lower the importance of the low cost airline Ryanair, who is the market leader in Ireland. For the moment, Ryanair did not commented this news.