US is a ready market for aerial Internet

[Colin Dunstan]

Boeing has created a wireless "hot spot" inside a Boeing 737 and came to Atlanta this week to sell Delta Air Lines executives on the advantages of surfing the Net and exchanging e-mail at 39,000 feet, according to this article. In other words, if we are lucky (well, those of us who can afford the the $10-$30 fees), Delta could soon become the first domestic airline to buy into Boeing's Connexion network.

Chris McGinnis, an Atlanta business travel consultant, says there's a ready market for aerial Internet. "I know that I, personally, would kill for something like that on a flight to Europe," he said. "I spoke with a person the other day who closed a real estate deal while he was flying from Seattle to Tokyo. It's something business travelers want and are willing to pay for."

Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, said executives long ago gave up the notion that airplanes provided the last refuge from work: "No one wants to get to their hotel room and have 80 e-mail messages waiting for them."

Deal says market data Connexion has gathered in Europe and Asia should convince U.S. carriers that Web access is a necessity for business travelers. Voice-over-Internet phones and videoconferencing could follow.