Joins Delta, American In Offering Service In North America

Airborne communications provider Aircell and Air Canada, Canada's largest airline, announced Tuesday they have reached an agreement for the airline to offer Aircell's Gogo (TM) mobile broadband service to passengers on transborder flights -- expanding Aircell's North American footprint, and making Air Canada the first Canadian airline to offer inflight Wi-Fi. 

Under this agreement, Air Canada will roll out the Gogo system on select flights, initially installing the system on its Airbus A319 aircraft that fly across the border into the United States. The airline expects to begin its initial deployment by spring 2009.

The Gogo system on Air Canada's trans-border routes will be available first in the US and powered by Aircell's existing US network, making Air Canada's initial rollout fast, economical and simple. Air Canada and Aircell expect that the Gogo service will eventually provide passengers with seamless coverage from key Air Canada cities such as Montreal and Toronto to every Air Canada market in the continental US.

Additionally, Aircell looks forward to the licensing and roll out of a Canadian Air-to-Ground network that will facilitate Air Canada's future fleetwide deployment.

"Air Canada has long been recognized as a leader in cabin merchandising and we are pleased to have Gogo selected as part of that marketing strategy," commented Jack Blumenstein, President and CEO, Aircell. "Adding Air Canada as Aircell's newest airline partner and first international customer will mark yet another milestone for our company. As we continue to grow our US network and explore our international expansion plans, Air Canada will have the distinction of being the first."

Well, the first in Canada, anyway. As ANN reported, American Airlines rolled out Gogo on two of its transcon Boeing 767-200s last month, and Delta has also announced plans to add in-flight Wi-Fi to all of its planes by summer 2009.

"Air Canada prides itself on connecting Canada and the world and an important element of staying connected today is having use of the Internet," added Charles McKee, Vice President of Marketing at Air Canada. "That is why Air Canada is taking a major step forward to becoming the first Canadian airline to provide its customers inflight, online access through Gogo. In cooperation with Aircell, and pending Canadian regulatory approvals, we plan to eventually offer internet access system-wide so customers can email, work and surf the net while flying, and more fully enjoy what is already a superior travel experience."

FMI: www.gogoinflight.com, www.aircanada.com