American Airlines, the last major U.S. airline to offer neither free WiFi nor free messaging, will soon take a first step into that world with a limited test.
AA, which charges up to $35 per flight for WiFi, will offer it free on three routes, two of them only about an hour long. The airline says it will use the test to see how many passengers want it and whether there’s enough bandwidth to support it. It’s not easy to see, though, how much useful data will be derived from flights as short as 56 minutes (that’s Charlotte to Raleigh-Durham).
The trend among airlines in recent years has been toward free or much cheaper WiFi and free use of messaging services such as WhatsApp and iMessage. JetBlue was the first to offer system-wide free WiFi in 2013. Delta, in 2017, was the first Big Three airline to offer free messaging, and has recently offered free WiFi to all its loyalty members. United has announced that it will follow within the year. Alaska and Southwest offer WiFi for $8 per flight.
