JetBlue to test free airborne e-mail service
E-mail anyone?
On Tuesday, JetBlue Airways plans to become the first US carrier to offer airborne travelers the ability to e-mail or chat online. And the service will be free.
On select flights, passengers using wireless-enabled laptops or WiFi-enabled BlackBerry smartphones will be able to send and receive e-mails and instant messages through their free Yahoo accounts or their BlackBerry service.
During a six-month test, the service will be available only on the one plane JetBlue has retrofitted with WiFi access points. That Airbus A320, dubbed BetaBlue, will fly five times a day, mostly on transcontinental routes.
If it works well, said David Neeleman, JetBlue’s chairman, ‘‘we’ll roll it out to our whole fleet.’’
The test run is part of an industrywide dash to attract passengers with high-tech amenities, potentially building a buffer against the airfare wars that so often lure customers away. American Airlines, Virgin America, and Alaska Airlines in the past four months have said they’ll introduce in-flight Internet access in 2008.
And snazzy offerings already abound, from Virgin’s seat-to-seat text messaging to United Airlines’ LCD screens playing shows on international flights.
(By Nicole C. Wong, Globe staff)
