Want Wi-Fi? Fly a U.S. Airline

Business travel nowadays needs Wi-Fi. And if y'all desire Wi-Fi, fly a U.S. airline.

Connected Traveler Airline assiduities analysis engine Routehappy looked at the current land of Internet access on airlines around the world, and found a dramatic gap in availability betwixt U.S. and non-U.S. planes. U.Due south. airlines offer Wi-Fi on 78 percent of their available seat miles, while non-U.Due south. airlines offer it on just 24 percent.

The main reason is that all four of our largest airlines—United, American, Delta and Southwest—have Wi-Fi on lath most of their planes, and JetBlue and Virgin America exercise, too.

Outside the U.South., Wi-Fi rollouts typically but announced on long-haul aircraft, Routehappy says. While there are 53 non-U.Due south. airlines that offer in-flying Wi-Fi, 76 percent of service-miles aren't covered, the company says.

Singapore-based Scoot, Icelandair, Etihad, Emirates, and Norwegian give you lot the best take a chance of connecting on all their flights. On long-haul flights, Lufthansa, Aeroflot, Garuda, Aer Lingus, Etihad, Emirates, Sultanate of oman, and Iberia are doing well, the company reported.

Routehappy Inline Chart

The Need for Speed
Having Wi-Fi doesn't mean the Wi-Fi will exist usable, though. The Gogo system currently installed on nigh Delta and American planes has a maximum, planewide bandwidth of ix.8Mbps. On busy flights like my flight back from CES, that just isn't enough; I paid for Gogo and and so information technology was too wearisome to use.

As I reported in November, Gogo's new 2Ku system bumps that up to 70Mbps per plane. That's coming to Delta, American, Aeromexico, Virgin Atlantic, and others.

JetBlue and Virgin America, meanwhile, are a step ahead, already in the midst of installing Viasat's "Exede in the Air" organization, which claims to offer up to 12Mbps per seat and acceptable performance with 50-lxx devices connected at one fourth dimension.

For more on Gogo'south new 2Ku organisation, lookout the video beneath.