Virgin America

Virgin America is one of the best airlines with wi-fi and offers wi-fi on 100% of flights. You can purchase wi-fi for $25 and enjoy speeds of 15 Mbps.

Jetblue

You can access wi-fi on 100% of Jetblue’s flights, with slightly slower speeds of 12 MBps. However, the upside is that the wi-fi is free of cost which is a rarity when it comes to in-flight wifi.

Delta

Delta offers wi-fi on 98% of flights with the same speeds of 15 Mbps. You can save a little money on a Delta flight since the average cost is $16.

Southwest

Southwest offers wi-fi at the low cost of $8 available on 90% of flights, with speeds of 10 Mbps.

United

United has slightly lower speeds at 9.8 Mbps on 85% of flights. It is able to be purchased for $20.

American

American Airlines has inflight wi-fi on 80% of flights, at the same speed of 9.8 Mbps.

Alaska Airlines

Alaska Airlines has the lowest availability of wi-fi on this list at 75%. It does offer similar speeds to the others at 9.8 Mbps for $16.

How are we able to get inflight wi-fi?

Inflight wi-fi is made possible through similar means as wi-fi on the ground. Cellular radio networks and satellites are used to create connections at reasonable speeds. The top providers of inflight wi-fi are GoGo and ViaSat. According to TheDroidGuy, GoGo has a “51 percent market share in North America and contracts with 17 commercial airlines.”

ViaSat came into the industry later and has since caused GoGo’s stocks to fall by16%. Inflight wi-fi is expected to continue to increase in speeds and availability, with ViaSat planning to launch two additional satellites, which are expected to surpass the “1-terabit milestone and offer much faster download and upload speeds than any technology on the market.”

For our international travelers, Routehappy also published a list earlier this year of the best inflight wi-fi worldwide. For those who travel for business, it might be worth checking on what kind of connection you can expect to see on your next flight.

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