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American Airlines' flight attendants will soon be assisting passengers with the help of Samsung's Galaxy Note. The airline has announced that all 17,000 of its flight attendants will be getting one of Samsung's stylus-enabled phablets to help them access passenger information, track food and beverage preferences and purchases, and stay up-to-date on travel conditions.
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has given approval for American Airlines to replace its flight manuals with iPad versions. The airline is the first commercial carrier to replace the satchels with the tablet, saving $1.2 million dollars annually in aviation fuel. The iPad remains the only tablet approved for aviation use by the FAA.
As promised back in June, American Airlines is now offering the Galaxy Tab 10.1 to passengers flying in premium seats. The devices will replace the airline's traditional entertainment options and come preloaded with 70 movies, including 30 new releases and three exclusive titles from Paramount. TV shows and audio files will also be available on the tablets.
An apparent leak on Tuesday maintained that the FAA has already approved the iPad for all purposes. The ZDNet tip had American Airlines being the first whose cockpits would use iPads at every stage of the flight, not just logbooks. The first flight would come on Boeing 777 aircraft, where Apple's tablet would also handle charting and flight manuals.
Gogo has unrolled a major upgrade to its in-air Wi-Fi access for 2012. Starting with Virgin America, its ATG-4 spec Wi-Fi promises to quadruple the practical speed, enough to where HD video streaming is an option. It upgrades to the faster EVDO Revision B standard for its 3G and also has upgrades to improve the connection quality, such as two modems on the aircraft to reduce bottlenecks and a directional antenna to focus the signal.
American Airlines has reasserted its commitment to expand its in-flight Wi-Fi program. After first announcing expansion plans in May, the company now promises to outfit its entire Boeing 767 fleet with Gogo Wi-Fi and a new 'Entertainment On Demand' system for streaming movies and TV shows.
Gogo this week announced it will offer an in-flight multimedia platform rather than just offering in-flight Wi-Fi, as it has to date. Users will, through their own Wi-Fi-enabled devices, have the ability to access real-time travel information, destination content, news and information and exclusive shopping deals. All this will come from a web browser, and passengers will also have access to streaming videos, though how this will be delivered isn't known.
Samsung scored an unusual deal with American Airlines to become the platform of choice for its in-air entertainment. About 6,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 units will take the place of the airline's usual entertainment devices in premium cabins on certain long distance flights in the US as well as to Europe and South America. The models wouldn't be stock and would get "expanded memory" among other changes to fit AA's needs.
American Airlines said Tuesday that it was testing a new streaming video service for its in-flight Wi-Fi. Rather than use movies stored on the plane, it would pipe movies and TV to users' own devices from an on-plane collection. Platforms weren't named but, given the airline's existing app experience, would likely cover at least Android devices such as the Xoom as well as iPads and iPhones.
Seven major airlines have teamed up with Gogo Inflight Internet to provide free access to Facebook during flights. Accessing other pages on the web, however, requires payment, ranging between $5 for short flights or $13 for long ones. Facebook is the most popular place visited on the Gogo network and is being used as a promo to drive adoption of in-air Internet use.
Gogo provided a first for in-flight Internet today by adding a monthly subscription plan to its lineup. Instead of paying per flight or for a 30-day pass, the $35 per month offer gives permanent, auto-renewing Internet access. It should work on all flights covered by Gogo and is potentially much less expensive for those who travel multiple times per month.
AirTran Airways in collaboration with Gogo has announced it will be the first airline to provide Wi-Fi access on all its airplanes. By registering with Gogo, users can purchase a session of internet time that enables them to use most non-voice Internet features on a given trip. Prices for the in-flight internet sessions are based on what type of device the user brings with them, and for how long they will be on the flight.
American Airlines on Thursday announced it will soon introduce digital Mobile Boarding Passes to make the process of getting on their flights less of a hassle and eliminating the need of printing out their passes, saving paper and time. The system uses QR codes accessed from fliers' mobile phones or PDA devices and took effect on Thursday at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. On Monday, November 17th, the system will be offered as an option to customers on domestic flights from Los Angeles International and Santa Ana John Wayne/Orange County airports as well.
Delta will filter the content on its in-flight Wi-Fi service, the airline said today. Although the company has previously been concerned about the ramifications of active censorship on its GoGo-based service and has intended to rely on attendants alone to screen out adult sites and other material that might make some passengers uncomfortable, it now says it will implement a content filter that automatically blocks certain sites before they reach cellphones, notebooks and other devices capable of a Wi-Fi link.
American Airlines will begin testing in-flight Wi-Fi technology on June 25th, a report claims. The technology is expected to debut on a round-trip flight between New York City's JFK and Los Angeles' LAX, and should it be successful, it could be quickly activated on number of other AA aircraft. Some 15 Boeing 767-200 planes are said to already have Wi-Fi installed, it just being a matter of activating the routers at will.
American Airlines may be the next company to adopt in-flight Internet via Wi-Fi, an anonymous tip claims. According to the source, transcontinental 767-200s will be fitted with broadband and Wi-Fi in 2008, the responsible company being AirCell. Earlier this year, AirCell announced that it had acquired FCC frequencies which would allow it to resurrect Wi-Fi; the technology had by that point long vanished from US flights, as Boeing's Connexion service had suffered a financial collapse.
