Air Canada Begins Customer Trials for Inflight Internet

Air Canada has begun trials to offer its customers Gogo Inflight Internet service on board select flights on the carrier’s Toronto-Los Angeles and Montreal-Los Angeles routes. Following the test period which runs until January 29, 2010, Air Canada will analyze usage and customer feedback before it proceeds with introduction of the service on other routes.

Customers can access the service using their own standard, Wi-Fi equipped laptop at a cost of $9.95 per flight or Personal Electronic Device (PED) at a cost of $7.95 per flight. Initially, the Gogo system will be powered by Aircell’s existing network and only available in the continental U.S. in order to make Air Canada’s rollout fast, economical and simple.

Air Canada intends to extend the system on other routes in North America with the deployment of the Canadian Air-To-Ground (ATG) network. Aircell plans to collaborate with the Canadian ATG licensee in supporting the establishment of a Canadian ATG network and in facilitating the fleet-wide deployment of Air Canada’s onboard connectivity service.