Only 10 days after filing, American Airlines has dropped its lawsuit asking a judge to get involved in a contract dispute with Gogo, which sells in-flight internet connectivity.
Gogo's stock shares were up 10% an hour after the news today that American has dropped the declaratory judgment action. But its share price remained only $11, as of publication time, down from its $13.89 price prior to the suit.
There was no word on the likelihood that the airline would remain a customer of Chicago-based Gogo. The airline considers competitor ViaSat's connectivity service to offer "a material improvement" over Gogo's early-generation air-to-ground service, "with respect to a portion of American’s fleet, representing about 200 aircraft."
UPDATE 1500 ET: Airline expert Seth Miller looked at filings around the case to figure out why the lawsuit was filed in the first place. He blogged:
"Essentially it seems that letters crossed in the ether (or on the ground I suppose; I don’t know if they use email or a paper solution for this sort of communication). And that the delay in Gogo acknowledging and responding caused the situation to go public...."
In light of the suit being dropped, Miller notes via Twitter:
"This doesn't end the efforts by AA to get out of the contract; it just ends the need for a judge to be involved."
The suit provoked more than 140 news articles about the inflight Internet service, many of which were a public relations disappointment for Gogo (Buzzfeed: "American Airlines Is Suing Gogo Over Its Crappy In-Flight WiFi", Wired: "American Airlines Sues Gogo Over God-Awful Inflight Wi-Fi").
UPDATE: For context on the dispute, see this in-depth article.