American Airlines will begin testing free inflight WiFi this week on three routes: Charlotte Douglas International Airport to Raleigh-Durham International Airport and to Jacksonville International Airport; and Miami International Airport to Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
In a staff memo released by Heather Garboden, chief customer officer, she wrote that through the test, the carrier will be assessing customer “take rates” for inflight WiFi, evaluating provider and aircraft capacity —”and perhaps most important — measuring the impact to customer satisfaction.”
United currently offers free WiFi for T-Mobile customers and plans to expand it later in 2025 with the Starlink satellite service. Hawaiian Airlines also uses Starlink, and JetBlue Airways plans to do so. Delta Air Lines offers free WiFi on most of its domestic routes for its SkyMiles members.
“While relatively small in scope, this is already a big stride in our organization’s very critical work to give our customers what we know they want,” Garboden wrote.
