Southwest Airlines Community

In my last WiFi post, I promised that we would reveal the remaining details, including the price, in late October. Today, I am pleased to announce that, after many months of price tests, Customer surveys, and industry observations, we are revealing a special introductory flat rate of $5! That's right ... for only $5 you can have full access to the Internet from departure to arrival. We plan to stay at a flat rate of $5 for all flight lengths and device types (laptop or handheld) as we continue to add to our growing number of WiFi-enabled aircraft. As of today, we have 32 planes installed with the Row 44 system, and we are adding to that number weekly. So, how will you know you're on a WiFi plane? During the installation phase, we plan to roll out Customer notification and advance-purchase options. In the shortterm, we will be sending e-mails to Customers scheduled to be on a WiFi plane 24 hours before departure. Once onboard, Customers will be met by our new WiFi signs announcing they are onboard a "Southwest Airlines WiFi Hotspot." And, of course, our wonderful airport Employees and Flight Attendants will be helping us spread the word as well! Once the Flight Attendants announce it is safe to turn on electronic devices, you simply have to boot up, select "Southwest WiFi" and launch your Internet browser. You will then have access to limited free content including a flight tracker, games, shopping, and all that southwest.com has to offer via the "Southwest Airlines WiFi Hotspot" portal. You can then choose to spend your time exploring the free portal or pay the low introductory $5 to check e-mail, visit Facebook, watch YouTube ... the opportunities are endless! (Please note: VoIP--Voice Over Internet Protocol--is blocked). At Southwest, we are dedicated to providing the best service at a great value, and WiFi is no exception. We hope to see you onboard one of our WiFi planes soon! For more information about Southwest’s WiFi, visit southwest.com/wifi. ... View more

As you may now know, Southwest bucked the in-flight WiFi trend when it chose Row 44’s satellite solution over the air-to-ground service selected by several of our competitors. Choosing this cutting-edge technology meant a delay in installation but, in doing so, we are in complete control over the Customer Experience and able to provide a robust service at a great value. Today, we are pleased to announce that we are officially in the process of installing WiFi on our fleet! As of this post, we have 13 activated aircraft and we are adding more aircraft every week. By the end of this year, we plan to have more than 60 WiFi planes crisscrossing the Southwest system! We will have more exciting WiFi announcements coming in the fourth quarter including pricing and the unveiling of a newly designed portal that all WiFi Customers will be able to access free of charge   ... View more

Hello everyone!  You probably saw the title of this blog post and thought, “haven't I heard that before?”  True, the road to onboard wi-fi has been a long one, but this week we took a major step that gets us closer to rolling out the system fleetwide.  We ended the equipment "testing" phase and signed an equipment purchase contract with our wi-fi provider, Row 44. That means we now begin the process of getting equipment ordered and aircraft scheduling in place to begin our full fleet installation. We’ll begin installing the equipment in the second quarter of 2010.  We expect to install equipment on around 15 aircraft per month initially, with the goal of increasing that number to 25 aircraft a month as we ramp up the process.  With this schedule, we estimate that our full fleet of more than 540 planes will be outfitted with wi-fi service by early 2012. So, on to the next pressing issue… what will it cost to connect?.  We don’t have an answer to that quite yet.  We’re still testing a variety of price points on the four aircraft that currently have wi-fi.  We’ll have a decision on price in the second quarter of 2010—rest assured that, just like our fares, it will be a great value. You can count on it! We’re excited about this new inflight amenity and we promise it will be well worth the wait! We’ll have more updates along the way, but, in the meantime, keep booking those Southwest flights! Your chances of traveling on a wi-fi plane will increase soon!  (And don’t worry, we won’t tell your boss that you've been surfing the Internet.)  😉 ... View more

As you know, we’ve been testing Wi-Fi on four aircraft since March.  I’m happy to announce we have concluded our testing for inflight Wi-Fi and we are very happy with both the technical performance of the system and the response of Customers who have used it. We are pleased to be continuing with our plans to offer satellite-enabled broadband access through California-based Row 44. This fall we will be moving to the next step of certifying Southwest’s full fleet with plans to begin fleetwide rollout of the Row 44 satellite service in the first quarter of 2010.  Southwest is ready to have this service up and running as soon as possible and we are excited about these next steps.   Over the testing phase Customers have been utilizing the service for anything from e-mail to streaming video.  Those interested in using the service during the test period have had the opportunity to log on to the service via their own personal Wi-Fi enabled device (laptops, iPhones, Wi-Fi enabled smart phones, etc).  Additionally, Southwest has been testing a variety of price points for the service and will continue testing price points through the end of 2009. The technology works, the product is great, and we look forward to offering more Customers Wi-Fi service in 2010.  ... View more