Splashed over the business and tech media today is the story of Delta Airlines announcing it will begin offering WiFi on cross-country flights in a few months. But why is this news? The technology for in-flight voice and data communications has been around for two decades, Virgin and others offer LiveTV to passengers, GTE/Verizon’s Airfone service floundered and was eventually sold due to lack of demand, while Qantas and others are already rolling out in-flight WiFi. Yes, it would be excellent to pay for Internet access rather than pillows, but wireless Web surfing is not going to save the airline industry.
