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The reason Delta doesn't have free Wi-Fi yet? Tech limits, CEO says

Zach Wichter
Zach Wichter
Aviation Industry Reporter
Zach has been interested in things that go since he was a kid. He previously worked at The New York Times and spent much of his time there covering the aviation industry, including contributing to the paper’s reporting on the 737 Max crisis at Boeing. He grew up in Bethpage, on Long Island, and graduated from Northwestern University in 2013 where he majored in journalism and gender and sexuality studies.
Sept. 18, 2019
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2 min read
Delta A330-900neo Flight-83
The reason Delta doesn't have free Wi-Fi yet? Tech limits, CEO says
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Delta Air Lines has long promised the days of unlimited free Wi-Fi are coming for its passengers, but according to its CEO, the company isn't quite ready to roll it out.

"It is really just a question of technical (features). It is not economics. I am nervous that if we turned it on, it's going to cause system outages," Ed Bastian said at the Skift Forum in New York on Wednesday.

The airline tested unlimited free Wi-Fi on select flights in May, but Bastian said the results weren't as promising as he'd hoped.

Related: 5 Things You Need to Know About Delta SkyMiles

Wi-Fi provider Gogo has significantly improved its reliability, Bastian said at the forum, but added it still doesn't work as intended under heavy usage. The airline found in tests that when Wi-Fi is free, passengers may connect as many as three devices each on a long flight.

But, Bastian said, the goal is still for free Wi-Fi to be available to all Delta passengers in the near future.

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For comparison, JetBlue already offers free high-speed Wi-Fi on its flights, but that service is provided by Viasat. JetBlue may also have fewer technical limitations, as it only flies within the Americas and not (yet) on long trans-oceanic routes. For more information on inflight Wi-Fi, you can check out our evaluation of who has the best Wi-Fi among US airlines.

Related: Snapshot: A Look at Delta Air Lines by the Numbers

Featured image by (Photo by Darren Murph / The Points Guy)