According to the Associated Press, Southwest Airlines is planning for five of its planes to sell live television service. The airline also intends to expand the service to 15 more aircraft by the middle of next month.
On Thursday, the company said that seven sports and news channels would be available for passengers to watch using their Wi-Fi-enabled phone, laptop, or tablet. During the trial period, prices for the service might range from $3-$8, and passengers who choose to buy Live TV can do so without needing to purchase wireless Internet access. The airline plans to keep those two services separate.
If the Live TV service – provided by Row 44 – proves to be successful, every Southwest plane with Wi-Fi capability will have it available for customers by the end of the year. Currently, the number of Southwest aircraft that are Wi-Fi-enabled is 250. By the end of next year, 70 percent of the airlines 550 Boeing 737 jets will have wireless Internet available.
Southwest is joining a number of other carriers that offer similar services. Competing carriers like Frontier Airlines offers 25 channels of live satellite TV on the bigger aircraft in its fleet, but it costs $6 for those who are not elite-level frequent fliers. Those who are receive the service free of charge. United also charges $6 to watch television on board if the flights is less than two hours. Longer flights raise the price to $8, but not every plane in the fleet has this service available. Other companies like Virgin America and JetBlue Airways have offered live TV programming on seat-back screens for several years at no extra fee. JetBlue offers 36 channels and Virgin America provides 18 options for customers.
The same day that Southwest announced their intention to offer live television on some of its planes, Delta Air Lines said that it will offer Internet access on international flights beginning early next year. As the AP article explains, “Delta's entire domestic fleet is already outfitted for Wi-Fi, but airlines have been slower to add the service on overseas routes partly because they need satellites to get a signal over the middle of the ocean, not the land-based transmission signals often used within the U.S.”
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
