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Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian just announced that free WiFi is coming to the carrier’s flights.
Starting February 1, “free, fast” WiFi will “be available to everyone,” Mr. Bastian said during a presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada.
A SkyMiles account will be required to take advantage of the perk. There will be no limit on how many devices a passenger can use.
Delta’s free WiFi will be available to 80% of Delta’s US system to start. Mr. Bastian said that it’ll be available across all of Delta’s system by the end of 2024.
In a statement, Delta said:
Working with engineers from Viasat — the satellite internet service provider behind the airline’s connectivity revolution — our teams have applied a rigorous approach to testing, learning and scaling best-in-class in-flight connectivity. We will offer the service on more than 700 Viasat-equipped aircraft by the end of 2023, in partnership with T-Mobile. We also announced plans to bring free Wi-Fi on international and regional aircraft by the end of 2024.
But don’t yet cancel those Gogo subscriptions (if you have one).
A Delta source clarified to me that only planes equipped with Viasat WiFi service will feature free WiFi. Gogo-equipped aircraft won’t have free WiFi, this person said. They also mentioned Delta is trying to transition all its planes to Viasat.
So, for example, you might not see free WiFi on Delta Connection flights or the airline’s Boeing 717 aircraft until at least 2024.
But this is certainly an exciting announcement!
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Chris, I noticed recently that certain flights on delta.com are listed as having “FAST-STREAMING WI-FI” while others are not. Do you think those are the planes that are currently equipped with Viasat?
Yep!
Glad Delta is doing this. However, since most of my flights are either Delta Connection or on 717s, looks like I’ll be keeping that Gogo account for a while.
The above comment was sent from a 717 en route from IAD to ATL utilizing Gogo Inflight in fact.
ANy commentary on Delta Sync? That was the big announcement I received via email as part of the free-wifi.
It looks cool. I’m going to look into it more.
Last time I bought it, it was so bad I couldn’t use it. SFO-DTE. I don’t recall model plane
I meant SFO-DTW