JetBlue Trials Free Inflight Wireless Email

In an Airbus A320 like this one, JetBlue Airways has begun trialing free inflight e-mail and instant messaging for passengers. Its partners for the wireless-Internet trial are Yahoo!, Research In Motion and JetBlue subsidiary LiveTV. The trial is taking place on an A320 that JetBlue has named \"BetaBlue\" because it uses the A320 to trial new LiveTV service products as they are developed. Credit: Derek Rust

JetBlue Airways has begun trialing a free e-mail and instant messaging service for passengers on one of its aircraft.

The airline has partnered with Yahoo!, Research In Motion (RIM) and LiveTV to begin offering the free e-mail and instant messaging service on an Airbus A320 that JetBlue has equipped with an onboard wireless network. The aircraft, which JetBlue has named "BetaBlue," is the airline's trial aircraft for LiveTV products.

JetBlue passengers with Wi-Fi-enabled laptops and smartphones will be able to use customized in-flight versions of Yahoo! Mail and Yahoo! Messenger, while those with RIM's Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry smartphones will be able to access their corporate and personal e-mail.

In trialing the free service, JetBlue has become the first U.S. domestic carrier to provide complimentary in-flight e-mail and instant messaging services. However, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines and Virgin America plan to offer broader Internet access in the coming months, according to a report today in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

JetBlue also offers its customers free high-speed wireless Internet access at its home base at Terminal 6 at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and in the terminal at Long Beach Airport, Calif., an airport where JetBlue is the dominant carrier.

Among the in-flight amenities that JetBlue offers its passengers are leather seats, 36 channels of free, live DirecTV programming and unlimited name brand snacks. The airline also offers more than 100 channels of XM Satellite radio onboard each of its Embraer 190s and has retrofitted most of the aircraft in its A320 fleet to provide the service.

LiveTV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of JetBlue, provides live in-flight entertainment and connectivity systems for commercial airlines. The company provides JetBlue's in-flight entertainment service and its customers also include other low-cost, low-fare airlines throughout the world.

Headquartered in Florida, LiveTV has installation and maintenance locations around the world to support nearly 500 aircraft equipped with its products.

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