Delta Airlines Is Now Offering In-Flight Texting Service To Passengers

It doesn’t matter if it is a long or short flight, it can still be extremely boring. Thanks to modern technology, some airlines now offer in-flight wireless internet connection. Then again, that’s already old news. Texting is now possible as well, and that’s according to Delta Airline.

IT BEGAN WITH WI-FI ON AIR

Who wouldn’t want to get connected with friends or family while in the middle of a dreadful long flight? You may even start working on the plane before you reach your destination. Even before in-flight texting was introduced by Delta this week, in-flight WiFi actually made it possible first.

Wi-Fi on the plane is indeed very convenient, it was introduced just last year. According to a survey, more and more people are looking for this one particular feature when it comes to choosing their flights. Some U.S. carriers offer WiFi services such as AirTran, Virgin America, and Delta, and it reportedly cost approximately $100,000 per aircraft to have Internet broadband installed 41,000 feet on the air.

Delta launched their free in-fligh text messaging service on the 1st of October

WHY IS IT EXPENSIVE YET SLOW?

It is of course not surprising for this kind of technology to be cheap, airline companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to make these things possible so expect it to be kind of pricey. Take the antennas, for instance, it makes things more expensive because the aircraft would then need more fuel. Not to mention all the engineering and maintenance costs that would, of course, be passed on to the customers.

However, the prices of in-flight WiFi varies between different airlines. Emirates offers a free trial for the first 10mb usage. There are also some airlines all over the world that offers free WiFi with time and data restrictions of course.
• Qatar Airways
• Emirates
• Air China
• Turkish Airlines
• Jetblue Airways
• Nok Air

Video streaming and calling such as usage of FaceTime or Skype may be prohibited. Then again, in-flight WiFi is still considered to be slow, but according to the European Aviation Network, they are already working on making it faster, the British Airways have reportedly signed up for it.

INTRODUCING IN-FLIGHT TEXTING

While airlines are trying to make their WiFi more affordable and faster, one specific airline just announced that they will be offering in-flight texting as well. Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta Air Lines just told CBS that they will start the process of offering their passengers an in-flight messaging service starting in October. This would then give the passengers of Delta the privilege of using text messaging apps such as iMessage, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger with the use of WiFi of course.

However, if you think that this would just make you pay more, well, think again. Bastian just revealed that you wouldn’t need to pay for in-flight internet for this new texting feature.

Bastian said on Wednesday that, “Starting this weekend, any flight you’re on, on Delta, anywhere in the world you’ll have the ability to text for free,”

He also mentioned that “We want our customers while they’re flying to stay connected to their homes, to their friends.”
Bastian also admitted that airline companies like Delta find it so difficult to make things easier and cheaper when it comes to WiFi. That is why they are making sure to do everything that would always benefit the customers. Delta Air Lines is named as the second top United States traditional carriers.

“People want Wi-Fi. The problem we have is the bandwidth still isn’t strong enough, the satellite bandwidth,” he explained. “Today, we still have too much because the quality is not there yet, but well eventually get to a point where there’s free service in the air and you’ll have ubiquitous service and capacity in the cabin.”

Despite the fact that online messaging can now be accessed free by Delta, cell phones must still be in airplane mode. Also, Delta is not the first ones to offer free online messaging since Alaska Airline launched a similar service just a couple of months ago, and Doug Parker of American Airlines recently announced that they will also launch their free online messaging services soon.
This can either be a good or a bad thing for passengers, but one thing is for sure, once everything is settled, no matter how long it may be, it will always benefit the customers.