August 20 marks the one-year anniversary of the commercial launch of Aircell’s Gogo Inflight Internet service on American Airlines. Since the launch, Aircell has added seven additional airlines, equipped 505 aircraft with Gogo (as of August 20) and offered the option of inflight connectivity to more than 22 million passengers.
In its first year, says Aircell, Gogo capability has been installed in every aircraft in the AirTran Airways and Virgin America fleets and the service has provided connectivity to hundreds of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines aircraft. As of August 20, American has installed the Gogo Inflight Internet service in 100 MD-80 aircraft ― two-thirds of the 150 Gogo installations the airline has scheduled to be completed on its MD-80 fleet by the end of 2009 ― as well as on 15 Boeing 767-200s.
Also as of August 20, says Aircell, 66 per cent of all flights between New York JFK and LAX/SFO are Gogo-equipped, with that number expected to reach 92% by the end of this year. United Airlines, US Airways, Air Canada and Northwest (through the Delta merger) have also announced plans to equip their aircraft with the service, solidifying Gogo’s reputation as the most widely-accessed Inflight Internet service.
“As envisioned, in-flight Internet is quickly becoming ubiquitous and a ‘must have’ for passengers,” says Ron LeMay, Aircell’s president and CEO. “Nearly 2,000 Gogo-equipped flights take off each day, with that number continually climbing.”
The proportion of Aircell’s customers who connected to Gogo using mobile devices grew 17 per cent in the last year, the company says, and Aircell expects this number to increase further. Both Facebook and Twitter claimed spots on Gogo’s list of the top five most-accessed sites. Keeping this in mind, Gogo is marking its first birthday on both sites (www.twitter.com/gogoinflight and www.facebook.com/gogoinflight), giving Gogo fans a chance to win prizes.
Aircell says the total number of Gogo-equipped aircraft is also climbing, and is available and updated in real-time on www.aircell.com.
