Free WiFi on 100% of domestic flights gives JetBlue top ranking for onboard internet service
In the heated competition between airlines in the U.S., JetBlue Airways offers an extra perk that is pretty alluring to most travelers: Free, high-speed wireless internet.
For that reason, an internet comparison site named JetBlue as the top domestic airline for overall WiFi service, followed by rivals Southwest Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Virgin America.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. Dec. 22, 2017An earlier version of this story reported that a study by Highspeedinternet.com found that JetBlue Airways offers free WiFi on 78% of its fleet. That study has been corrected to say that JetBlue offers free WiFi on 100% of its domestic fleet.
The ranking by Highspeedinternet.com considered not only the speed of the connection but the cost and the availability on every plane.
JetBlue won the top spot because the New York-based carrier offers free WiFi with speeds of 15 megabits per second on 100% of its domestic fleet, according to the ranking. Southwest Airlines ranked second because it offers WiFi at speeds of up to 10 Mbps for $8 per flight on 90% of its fleet.
Virgin America also offers internet connections on 100% of its fleet but it comes with a price of up to $25, depending on the length of the flight. Virgin America’s WiFi speed is 15 Mbps, which is considered fast enough to stream movies and television shows.
Don’t care about connecting to the internet? Frontier, Hawaiian and Spirit Airways are the only three major U.S. carriers that offer no onboard WiFi at all, according to the ranking.
Passengers on Hawaiian Airlines can watch movies and television shows on a seatback entertainment system. Spirit and Frontier offer magazines.
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