If you are planning to fly on a Virgin America plane between the dates of November 10 this year and January 15 2010 then thanks to Google you’ll be getting a free wi-fi connection to use. TechCrunch has reported that Google will be footing the bill for all passengers who wish to use the wireless service on VA’s aircraft that support it over the 8 or so week period.
It’s a smart move in my opinion as a number of people find that sitting a few hours on a plane can be a boring time where you could put that time to better use by keeping in contact with the world. However, some may see that as a bad thing as it is one of the very few places where you can actually disconnect from the web and people and take time to relax. Whatever your thoughts are on this, it’s still a nice little bonus for those flying who want to make use of the service.
The only major concern is how the wireless service will run. With wi-fi normally being an additional extra at a cost the service is only used by a few, but opening it up to all could potentially cause a bottle neck. It will be interesting to see how the service runs over the holiday season.
Another question to ask is how other flight operators will follow. Should they also offer the same service for free to match what VA are doing? Perhaps it’s just a start of how connectivity will be made available over the next few years.
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