Starting Tomorrow, Intraflight Messaging To Be Featured on Virgin America Flights
by Russell Shaw
We’ve been hearing a lot about plane-to-ground broadband, and even SMS messaging riding herd on that.
But what about passenger-to-passenger text-based communication up in the wild blue yonder? Say you, in 31A, IM a coleague in 9C?
Given the sheer number of passengers who arise from their seats to stand in the aisles and talk to a colleague or friend many rows away, I could certainly see this working.
The correct term for this communication is Intraflight Messaging. And the form gets a big boost tomorrow.
That’s because Virgin America, which will kick off domestic U.S. service tomorrow, will offer Intraflight Messaging.
This will not be offered via traditional handsets, but as a component of Red. That’s Virgin America’s in-flight entertainment system. And Red is named after the fleet’s red tails.
The free service kicks in when a a sender designate’s the receiver’s number by typing it on a touch-screen keyboard. Passengers may use keyboards at their seat to indicate whether or not they want to receive such communications. While potential recipients can also use the keypad to accept or decline, they can’t see the name of the sender.
Virgin is, well, you know, not a “virgin” in Intraflight Messaging. Corporate cousin Virgin Atlantic has been offering a similar feature as part of Virgin Atlantic’s V-Port entertainment system. That carrier cites thousands of users a month.
