In the battle for revenue, airlines are racing towards Wi-Fi

In the airline industry, many companies are looking at alternative ways to find new revenues. This isn't just limited to one or two companies either. Every airline is looking at ways to create more profitable opportunities. Most European airlines are in competition with each other when it comes to the race to get WI-FI because they all realise the benefits of having that feature on their planes. Not only can they encourage customers to pay for it, but it’ll also encourage more people to fly with them in the first place. So why has it taken Europe so long to introduce airline WIFI?

When it comes to WI-FI being installed and available on airplanes, the US has had this option implemented on any flights for quite a few years now. On average, Americans are able to use WI-FI on airplanes on 66% of the total miles flown, which is a huge amount compared to the 22% which Europe boasts. So why is Europe so far behind? Firstly, Europe has many countries within a relatively small radius so it’s not as easy to provide a stable and reliable WI-FI service across a journey that could span over 4-5 countries. Secondly, because the flights are usually quite short, using services that are satellite based have proved to be very expensive. However, as more satellites are being used, the cost is reducing significantly, so significantly in fact that having WIFI on short European flights can now become a real possibility.

The revenue from the WIFI service will indeed be a welcome extra for many airlines but it’s not the only aspect of the service that they could potentially make money from. Along with the initial cost of connecting up to the service, airlines could also look at potential partnerships with online retailers that could be accessed from this services. There are many ways a service like this could potentially create extra revenue but it’s only recently that European airlines have been able to take advantage of this technology.

It’s not only a positive for the airlines, but it’s a positive for the end user as well. It’ll be an optional service which means there’s no extra charge if the user doesn't want to use it and for those who've wanted to post selfies and update their twitter account whilst in the air, now they can finally do it