E-Mail Takes Flight on United
United Airlines is set to announce Tuesday that it will begin offering in-flight e-mail services on all its U.S. domestic flights by the end of the year, according to a U.K. representative for the company.
The announcement will represent a first by a U.S. airline, and marks a strong move by United to woo business fliers and drum up added revenue in the face of strong competition by low-cost competitors. United is currently operating under bankruptcy-court protection, making its need to lure business travelers even more essential.
The new e-mail capabilities build on the JetConnect service already provided on United flights by Verizon Communication’s Airfone subsidiary. JetConnect currently offers news and weather as well as instant messaging and text messaging for $5.99 a flight.
New and Improved
The JetConnect service will boast added e-mail capabilities by the end of the year, at a cost of $15.98 a flight plus $0.10 per kilobyte of data over 2 kilobytes, the representative said. The e-mail service is being provided by Tenzing Communications.
More details of the service are expected to be released when United makes the official announcement later Tuesday.
The representative said that the carrier has no plans to extend the service outside of the U.S. until it measures demand domestically.
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