Boeing Gives Up on In-Flight Internet

After what could best be classified as a half-hearted attempt to offer in-flight internet service, Boeing has wimped out and given up on the idea. The story's in the International Herald Tribune (link from Drudge).

In announcing the project in 2000, Boeing predicted that the market for inflight Internet access would be worth $70 billion over 10 years. But the company said Thursday that the number of passengers using the service on the 156 aircraft with 12 airlines amounted to little more than "low single digits" a flight. Boeing declined to say how much it costs to run the service.

The cost to airline passengers is $9.95 an hour or $26.95 for an entire flight, and revenue is shared between Boeing and the airlines.

Lufthansa, which operates 62 aircraft using the system, said that the maximum number of passengers ever connected at one time is around 40 a flight, usually on routes to North America and Asia.

"Given the usage level, we just didn't see the kind of numbers that add up to a business," said John Dern, a Boeing spokesman. "You could say it flew well technically, but it didn't fly so well as a business."

The upside: Like terrestial-based bandwidth, the technology is likely to be available at el-cheapo prices, giving someone else with a better business plan -- like, oh, getting a US business carrier like Delta to offer it domestically in the USA on the northeast shuttle routes and cross-country flights -- a chance to keep the idea alive.