PARIS - Holiday travelers will test onboard email and text-messaging services using cell phones and other portable devices, as airlines begin trials on their planes this week.
Several airlines in the United States and Europe are set to begin testing the services, with plans to extend the services to most of their fleets over the next year and a half. It is rumored that a few also plan to enable voice calls.
JetBlue Airways will start by offering a free email and instant-messaging service on one aircraft. In the coming months, American Airlines, Virgin America and Alaska Airlines plan to offer a broader Web experience for about $10 per flight.
In Europe, Air France-KLM will kick off a six-month test of text messaging and email on one of its Airbus A318 jets before Jan. 1. BMI of Britain, TAP of Portugal and Ryanair plan to begin similar services by the end of March.
Australian airline Qantas has been testing the services on one of its Boeing 767 planes by offering 11,000 domestic passengers text-messaging and email services through their cell phones, BlackBerrys, Treos and other "smart phones."
Dubai's Emirates equipped 10 of its Airbus A340-500 jets with an onboard Wi-Fi system this year, allowing travelers to access their email accounts with services such as Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL. The service is available on selected flights between Dubai and destinations in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland and Germany.
Several other carriers, including Royal Jordanian Airlines, Kingfisher of India, AirAsia of Malaysia and Shenzhen Airlines in China, plan to offer various in-flight mobile and Internet services within the next two years.
"I think 2008 is the year when we will finally start to see in-flight Internet access become available, but I suspect the rollout [in the United States] will take place in a very measured way," said Henry Harteveldt, an analyst with Forrester Research. "In a few years' time, if you get on a flight that doesn't have Internet access, it will be like walking into a hotel room that doesn't have TV."
In-flight Internet service originated in 2000, when Boeing developed its Connexion service, which was used by several major carriers, including Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. However, passengers found the cost ($9.95 an hour) prohibitive, and Boeing abandoned the service in 2006.
"It was one of those cases of the chicken and the egg," said Stephen Forshaw, a Singapore Airlines spokesman. "To get the price down, Boeing needed the volume, but to get the volume, they need to offer it a lower price."
Current onboard systems enable passengers to use their mobile devices or laptops, while other services are linked to the seat-back entertainment or air-to-ground telephone system, enabling passengers without laptops or smart phones to send messages.
