Recently in US Air Transport Category

We're dying to know the usage stats on Gogo but Aircell isn't telling...yet. American Airlines this summer began offering the in-flight broadband service on its transcon fleet of Boeing 767s.

"Unfortunately, I can't release our usage stats yet. I can say that we have exceeded our usage goals to date and are happy with how usage is trending," says an Aircell spokesman. 

Okay, but if that's the case, then why is Aircell handing out coupons to American customers for 25% off the usual price of $12.95 for over three hours?

"In terms of the discounts, they aren't new. We have been experimenting since day 1 with discounts on various flights and routes at various times to see how they impact adoption and usage," says the spokesman. "We've been very happy with the usage so far, but more usage is always better, right?"

Perhaps I'm just being a bit cynical here. And so I asked a telecommunications expert what he thinks. "I suspect that they WANT to be at $9.95 - so their marketing folks figured they'd list price at $12.95 and then pass out the coupons....works fine...also, nothing wrong with introductory discounts. It's still cheaper than a Hilton, Sheraton or Best Western."

Okay, grand. We'll accept that...for now. Virgin America is set to go live with the service on 22 November. The carrier as well as another Aircell customer, Air Canada, appear to be breaking from the pack with respect to content filtration.

While American and Delta will filter objectionable material such as pornography (as discussed at length here and also here), Virgin America and Air Canada "have not indicated a desire to filter content on Gogo", says the Aircell spokesman.

He says the Colorado-based company isn't surprised by all the hoopla surrounding the in-flight porn issue. "In terms of our reaction to the 'hoopla', these aer simply the growing pains of being a new technology and we're taking them in stride."

Virgin America will become the second US carrier to offer in-flight broadband connectivity when it launches Aircell's Gogo service on 22 November (or at least that's the plan).

The carrier has sent an invite to journalists to participate in a special flight above San Francisco on its beta Wi-Fi aircraft.

But, in "true Virgin fashion", the airline will launch Gogo "with the first-ever live air-to-ground video transmission, streamed to an audience of millions both online and onstage during an event unlike any other - YouTube Live".

Press will get a a shot at YouTube stardom by being part of the live broadcast from the plane, says the carrier.

Key caveat:

Guests will be asked to log off the network to preserve bandwidth during the live air-to-ground transmission of the flight. 

We're being told to bring our laptop or PDA "but no tasers bro". Darn it!

Meanwhile, check out Virgin America's clever new dedicated YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/virginamerica 

I just received the following e-mail from a friend, who is using Aircell's Gogo connectivity service in the sky right now. The Vonage speedtest says a lot (check out part of a screen grab below). I gotta ask, however: What's up with the steep discounts already?

Hiya!
 
sending live from AA Flt 34 LAX-JFK - Gogo is great - $12.95 (less a 25% promo coupon) - and VERY respectable speed.  Don't know if you're written it up yet but VERY pleased. I'm streaming WQXR and it sounds fine....VoIP is verboten yet - but I tried a test and it's pretty choppy - they're probably doing that intentionally for now since the bandwidth is good enough for it to work.

I spent most of yesterday touring LiveTV's hangar at Orlando International Airport and its headquarters in nearby Melbourne, Florida. In Melbourne, I got a chance to experience LiveTV's latest-generation live television system, LTV3, which we'll chat about later in more detail here (suffice it to say, the system is pretty damn awesome).

But I also had the opportunity to learn about LiveTV's three-pronged connectivity strategy, which involves offering its basic Kiteline messaging and email product to airline customers now (parent JetBlue is flying the service) while developing two broader solutions for the future, including Oasis which will offer a "feels like broadband" experience by cleverly combining Kiteline with the stored content-upload capabilities of LiveTV's wireless aircraft data link (WADL) system. I should stress that Oasis hasn't been officially launched, but managment is eyeing a possible 2009 service entry.

I've written a fuller piece about it for Flight, which can be accessed by either clicking on this link or scrolling down a bit further, whichever is easier for ya. And I've tapped IFE&C consultant Michael Planey to give us his two cents about Oasis. More from Planey later.

LiveTV reveals a "feels like broadband" in-flight solution
By Mary Kirby

LiveTV is developing a new connectivity solution that would enable carriers to offer passengers a broadband-like experience during flight with substantial ease.

The service, dubbed Oasis, has not yet been launched, although this could occur as early as 2009, said LiveTV co-founder and chief technology officer Jeff Frisco from the company's headquarters in Melbourne, Florida.

Significantly, however, LiveTV is open to offering Oasis to current airline customers of its live television systems or on a standalone basis.

"A great target may be regional fleets that cannot support a pay model. This could be standalone," says LiveTV VP of marketing and sales Mike Moeller.

He stresses, however, that LiveTV's business strategy of offering "IFE first and connectivity second" remains in play.

LiveTV is best known for its highly successful live television systems, which are installed on the fleets of parent JetBlue Airways, Frontier Airlines, WestJet in Canada and Australia's Virgin Blue. Continental Airlines is LiveTV's newest customer and will offer satellite programming on a large portion of its Boeing narrowbody fleet beginning early next year.

However, in late 2007 LiveTV began offering a basic in-flight connectivity service called Kiteline on a JetBlue aircraft. Kiteline supports free messaging and e-mail using the 1MHz slice of air-to-ground (ATG) spectrum that LiveTV acquired during the US Federal Communications Commission's 2006 auction of 4HHz of spectrum in the 800MHz band allocated to ATG services.

JetBlue recently said it intends to offer fleet-wide connectivity after testing Kiteline, while Frontier and Continental are also turning to LiveTV for connectivity.

Oasis, named thusly because it is "a beautiful place made possible with data", represents the second step in LiveTV's connectivity strategy, says Frisco. The service will combine the low data rate capability of Kiteline with LiveTV's ability to upload large amounts of cached content to onboard servers via its wireless aircraft data link (WADL).

For several years WADL has provided JetBlue with continuous remote-video monitoring of its aircraft cabins on the ground. But it also enables movies as well as relatively fresh stored content to be uploaded to the aircraft.

By harnessing Kiteline and WADL, LiveTV will be able to offer a "feels like broadband" experience, says Frisco. The solution would be cost efficient because content storage "is cheap".

Moeller says access to Oasis and "various aspects" of the service would be free for passengers, including possibly email. Other parts of the service - movies for instance - would cost a fee.

At present, a number of in-flight connectivity providers are either offering or are planning to offer broadband solutions, including Ku band-based ViaSat, Row 44 and Panasonic as well as ATG-based Aircell, which owns an exclusive 3MHz license to provide wireless broadband on commercial aircraft.

Aircell's system is currently being trialled on American Airlines' fleet of 15 transcontinental Boeing 767-200s. So far the Colorado-based firm has kept usage data close to its chest.

IFE and in-flight connectivity consultant Michael Planey believes that with Oasis, LiveTV is proposing "a reasonable approach that allows its customers to essentially dip their toe into the water without having to jump into the water and sign up for a 10-year agreement for connectivity services, which is the kind of stuff that Aircell and Row 44 are proposing".

In five years, the passenger demand for broadband "will outstrip what this Kiteline and Oasis product will be able to deliver", he suggests, but this will give LiveTV time to develop a broadband connectivity solution for customers.

LiveTV is already making headway on this front. The third step in the firm's three-pronged connectivity strategy involves potentially offering a Ku band-based solution in tandem with LiveTV's soon-to-be-launched third generation live television system. LiveTV engineers are currently working on an antenna to support the dual service.

LiveTV is not yet convinced, however, that there is a market for a pay-for-service broadband connectivity model and continues to take a "hedge and wait" approach.

"If Row 44 and Aircell prove that people will pay $10 or $20 [for broadband] and the doubt is out of the model, we can do a new antenna that does both [DBS] TV and broadband," says Frisco.

Nonetheless, LiveTV still sees live television as the killer application for today's entertainment-hungry world. "TV is the drug," says Frisco.

 

Updated to include Delta comment...see end of story

Delta Air Lines calls the Boeing 767 the workhorse of its international fleet. That workhorse was tested recently when a flight from Atlanta to Moscow apparently lost power to one of its two engines. The aircraft landed safely in Moscow.  

I haven't seen any formal safety reports about the incident yet, but The Aviation Herald says the Pratt & Whitney PW4060-powered 767-300 is registered N181DN. A pic of the aircraft is available at this Flickr account.

Mike Moeller, an executive at JetBlue Airways subsidiary LiveTV, happened to be on that flight as he and has wife were travelling to Russia to adopt their beautiful new son Liam. Mike recounts his experience on his family's blog. Key passage:

"After flying all night, we were awaken around 8:00 Moscow time (two hours before landing) to breakfast. As we opened our breakfast and were about to be served something to drink, something happened. Suddenly, the plane's engines got quieter, we slowed, all the lights and in flight entertainment went out. No more air coming from the overhead consoles.

"We had lost power. I noticed along with a couple of other people that something was up, but the rest of the passengers continued as is. About 20 seconds later, the head flight attendant came running down the aisle and whispered to the other flight attendants. They very quickly took the carts to the back and sat down. The head flight attendant continued as he ran to the front of the plane and soon returned to look out the windows.

"I then wondered: Have we lost an engine? (I read something about Delta and American losing an engine 2 weeks ago on 767 flights) Is something up with Russia and we cannot land? Is there fighter airplanes outside the widow? Where are we going to land?

"After about 20 minutes, the captain came on 'We have lost and engine (we have two by the way) and will be landing soon'."

The full text of Mike's blog post is definitely worth a read. I admire he and his wife's faith that everything would be alright. Frankly, I would have been a nervous wreck especially after flight attendants began the process of reviewing the fundamentals of crash landing with passengers.

Delta has been in the news of late for other engine issues. You'll recall that the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) last month issued an urgent recommendation to FAA to require operators to cut inspection intervals for Pratt & Whitney PW2037 engines to prevent uncontained failures. As reported by Flight's John Croft, the NTSB request is tied to an ongoing investigation of a 6 August incident at Las Vegas McCarran International airport where a Delta Air Lines Boeing 757-200 experienced an uncontained engine failure during its takeoff run.

Investigators later learned that at least four other PW2037 second stage turbine hubs had experienced cracks in the blade retaining lugs, and that during a routine overhaul, American Airlines uncovered a PW2037 second stage turbine hub with cracks in two adjacent blade retaining lugs.

Asked to comment on the Atlanta-Moscow incidednt, a Delta spokesman says: "Pilots received indication light on the left-side engine. Moscow was the closest airport. They powered down the engine. Engine type was PW4000, Flight #46."

US Airways is deactivating the powerports on its 102 Airbus A320 family aircraft. See below for two pretty informative Q&As between US Airways and its employees about the carrier's plans.

I only hope that US Airways' decision to decimate its domestic in-flight entertainment (IFE) and services in economy class means that it is readying to take a step forward, as previously discussed. Oh I know, that pillow/blanket set sounds really exciting. Calm your enthusiasm.

Q. When we remove IFE systems from our domestic mainline aircraft, are we also going to deactivate powerports?

A. "We currently have powerports on 102 Airbus A320 family aircraft. We'll be deactivating them when we remove IFE systems from these aircraft beginning Nov. 1.The powerport system only permitted limited usage of 8-10 customers at a time and required them to purchase a special adapter. We'll continue to offer universal (adapter-free) laptop power compatible for 145 countries in Envoy on our B767 and 757 fleet and are taking this option for our new A330-200s that are coming online later this year. We'll also continue offering in-seat power in Envoy on our A330-300 fleet."

Q. What about pillows and blankets? When are those coming and what else will we sell? Also, what about new IFE? Who are we working with?

A. "Regarding the pillow and blanket question: They're coming (but no exact date yet) and looking at selling for about $7. In regards to IFE we are talking to all the primary vendors for inflight entertainment and Wireless internet. Given the large costs involved and the 10- to 15-year life cycle of what we choose we will carefully compare the pros and cons of all the choices prior to moving forward."

Fast finger action over at Northwest's IT dept.

Check out www.nwa.com/corpinfo/profi/organ/