Hold up AirTran -- not so fast with those wild claims of in-flight WiFi superiority. If you'll recall, the aforesaid airline proclaimed that it would soon be the first to have its entire fleet doused with Gogo, but it looks like Virgin America has swept in to claim that title. We should point out just how unfair the challenge is, though: VA has 28 planes as of today, whereas AirTran has 136. At any rate, we're still thrilled to see airlines duking it out in order to get more WiFi to more fliers, and we fully anticipate that every new aircraft added to Virgin America's fleet will be lit from day one. Now, if only they'd allow Skype functionality for more than just an Oprah demonstration, we'd really be playing with fire.

[Via Gadling]

Listen up, jet-setters -- AirTran Airways just got a lot more attractive. Starting this summer, this very airline will become the "world's first" (Virgin America will have its comparatively small fleet of 28 fully equipped by Memorial Day) to equip all of its aircraft with in-flight WiFi, and when we say "all," we mean "all." Much like the half dozen other Aircell airline partners, AirTran is also utilizing Gogo technology, but it's doing so across its entire fleet of Boeing 737 and 717 aircraft. If all goes to plan, all 136 AirTran planes will be broadband-enabled by "mid-summer," and as with other Gogo-equipped planes, patrons will be asked to pony up $12.95 for access on flights over three hours and $9.95 for jaunts that are three hours or less. Of note, "handheld devices" can hop online for just $7.95 regardless of flight length, though we get the idea that VoIP calling will still be disabled.

Aircell already managed to coerce American, Delta, Virgin America and Air Canada into installing its Gogo in-flight internet equipment into at least a few of their airplanes, and now United Airlines can proudly say that it's no longer looking in from the outside. Starting this year, a baker's dozen of the company's Boeing 757s -- which will fly between John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York and California's Los Angeles International Airport and San Francisco International Airport -- will be armed and ready with WiFi for the people. Pricing will remain set at $12.95 for the entire flight, and service is expected to roll out during the second half of this year.

We already knew that Delta was pushing its in-flight WiFi plans ahead, and starting tomorrow, a half dozen MD-88 shuttle flights will be live with internet from 35,000 feet. As with Virgin America, Delta Air Lines will be relying on Aircell's Gogo technology, though it will go down as the first US carrier to initiate a "fleet-wide rollout." Eventually, over 300 domestic mainline aircraft will enable guests to surf the intarwebz from way up high, and you'll know if the one you're boarding is lit if you see one of the above pictured "Wi-Fi Onboard" logos on the boarding door. The launch flights -- which will run from December 16th through the 31st -- will provide gratis access to the web, while standard pricing of $9.95 on flights of three hours or less and $12.95 on flights of more than three hours will presumably kick in on January 1, 2009. Happy trails, and don't forget to give us a visit while you're up there.

[Via Switched]

Here's something that doesn't happen everyday with legacy airlines -- an announcement that something is actually ahead of schedule. After hearing that Delta would equip its entire US fleet with Aircell's Gogo in-flight WiFi in 2009, along comes a release from Aircell that says otherwise. In fact, it proclaims that "Delta Air Lines is expected to launch service before the end of 2008." Furthermore, the company has confessed that "most major US carriers are in advanced discussions with or are already contractually committed to Aircell," which certainly bodes well for avid travelers who take issue with long periods of disconnection. Aircell is hoping to have its in-flight internet tech installed in 2,000 commercial aircraft by the end of 2009 -- talk about making the friendly skies "friendly" again.

[Image courtesy of Gadling]

The time has come, internet mavens... to comment on this post from 35,000 feet up, of course. After launching to a select handful of lucky souls last week, Virgin America has gone live with its Aircell-engineered Gogo internet service on select flights. As of now, an undisclosed amount of VA flights will offer guests unlimited use (with certain restrictions around VoIP, we hear) while in the air for $12.95 on flights longer than three hours and $9.95 for flights under three hours. The airline's entire fleet should be WiFi-ready by Q1 2009, but for now, why not kill some time tracking planes with live internet access? Fun, right?

So I took a little a break from working on gdgt to get on Virgin America's inaugural Aircell GoGo WiFi party flight, posting this at altitude. If you haven't already caught one of the early Aircell flights on Delta, American, or Air Canada, their now-active GoGo service provides in-flight internet. So far, as far as party planes go, this one hasn't been too raucous -- probably because everyone's been geeking out on their laptops.
Quick facts:

• The service is a shared high-power EV-DO Rev. A connection, at 3.6Mbps downstream and 1.8Mbps upstream.
• By April, 100% of Virgin America's flights will have GoGo service. Dayumn! All GoGo service is $10 for short flights (under 3 hours) and $13 for longer flights (over 3 hours).
  
• So far I've been getting about 1Mbps down, and 200Kbps up -- pretty good considering that this is about as pinned as the system is going to get. There are only about 150 people on it right now, you know?
• Latency is between 200-500ms, sometimes higher. Reasonable latency, though.
  
• The system uses 802.11a/b/g, although it's an open AP (i.e. no encryption).
• Speaking of which, GoGo claims they'll support VPN, so expect that to work. SSH is iffy though -- it worked for us, but they don't really want people SSH tunneling (especially to do stuff like VoIP).
• Aircell intends to block voice and video chat to keep things less obnoxious for travelers. It's working in flight though -- people are doing iChat sessions. But part of this inaugural flight will have live YouTube streaming, so one should expect to have this cut off later.
• BitTorrent works! It's not crazy fast, but I'm peering with about 8 nodes. I wouldn't expect this to work when the service launches.
  
• GoGo has a built-in traffic shaper that keeps an eye out for those using more traffic than others. If you're consuming too much, it'll scale you back (although no one has a hard cap). If you're the only one on GoGo (say, on a red-eye at 4am) then you can go crazy, you won't be scaled back. Still, I'm sitting next to my old pal Brian Lam from Giz, and I'd wager the two of us are somehow taking up about 80% of the plane's bandwidth.
  
• Virgin America isn't filtering content, so feel free to cast a glance over your shoulder and engage your browser's private mode.

Any thing else you want to know?

Check it, Canucks -- Air Canada is following in the footsteps of several other airlines by finally taking the plunge on in-flight WiFi. Similar to American Airlines, it has landed a deal with Aircell in order to bring the intarwebz to the friendly skies on select flights. Starting next spring, certain transborder flights from the Great North to the West Coast of America will give passengers the option of hopping online for C$12.95, and Charles McKee, the airline's vice-president of marketing, has asserted that it has every intention of rolling the service out "across its North American fleet" in the future. Now, if only every other airline would follow suit...

[Via Jaunted]

At long last, "you are now free to surf the intarwebz while flying." Okay, so maybe it has been possible in the past, but American Airlines is taking a huge leap forward in the US market today by giving passengers aboard long-haul Boeing 767-200 flights the option to hop online during the trip. The GoGo service, which is being provided by Aircell, will charge customers $12.95 for access to the world wide web, though Reuters points out that VoIP calling is "not available." Delta, US Airways, et al. -- time to get with the program.

[Via Dallas News, thanks Travis]

You heard right, folks. American Airlines is planning to open up the world wide web to passengers on board an unspecified round-trip flight from New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and Los Angeles. The Gogo service, provided via Aircell, will be free for patrons tomorrow, but will eventually run users $12.95 for flights greater than three hours and $9.95 for trips under said threshold. We're also told that more trials are expected to get going on flights between New York and San Francisco and New York and Miami, though no time frame is given for when the service would escape the beta stage and hit mass implementation. Additionally, the Gogo system is supposed to "prioritize the flow of data so that passengers downloading movies or large documents won't prevent other passengers from getting their email," so don't expect to use that excuse for not sending in those Q2 close reports.

[Via Jaunted]

His preeminence, oh lordship, oh liege, (uh hem) Walt Mossberg, just returned from a US test flight on a small business jet equipped with Aircell's new Gogo WiFi service. He tested multiple devices including Dell and Apple laptops, a Blackberry, iPhone, and WinMo-based cell and found them to all perform flawlessly, albeit, at speeds ranging from 266Kbps to about 1.4Mbps. Typical speeds clocked in at 500Kbps to 600Kbps -- upload speeds were a more modest 250Kbps to 300Kbps. Aircell promises a similar experience on large commercial planes with multiple connected devices. These speeds were good enough for Walt to surf the Web and check email (both prioritized on Gogo's network) as he would in the office but not quite fast enough to deliver smooth video streaming. Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending upon your opinion) the service blocks all VoIP services like Skype. Gogo WiFi will cost $12.95 for flights of three hours or longer, and $9.95 for shorter trips -- free for limited access to AA's website, Frommer's online travel guides, and select articles from The Wall Street Journal. It's scheduled to launch next month on American Airline flights between New York and LA, San Francisco, and Miami -- it will then head to Virgin America and other airlines if things go well. See Walt's head talk from the bowels of embedded video after the break.

So Aircell just nabbed itself the first and only approval from the FAA for air-to-ground mobile broadband for US domestic flights, meaning we're that much closer to in-flight internet. So far the approval just covers the Boeing 767-200, which means Aircell can start prepping equipment to cover the 767-200 fleet of American Airlines this year, but they're also prepping to cover the Airbus A320 fleet of Virgin America. Routes between LA, SF, NY and Miami are going to get priority treatment. Aircell's Joe Cruz was also quick to point out that this approval paves the way for future aircraft approvals, which certainly can't come soon enough.

[Via Phone Scoop]

As you know, American Airlines is prepping in-flight WiFi in addition to, uh, anti-missile systems. Good news on the former, pricing is set. Good if $10 WiFi for flights less than three-hours or $12.95 for longer flights excites your fiscal sweet-spot like it does American's. Rollout will begin this summer on AA's 767-200 jets before rolling out across its entire fleet.

[Via WNN]