Inflight wifi is a $100 million business per year and is perhaps becoming the acceptable face of ancillary revenue in the air industry.
Market leader is Aircell, providing services to the likes of American, Delta, Airtran and many others.
According to Aircell, 1,009 commercial aircraft are equipped with wifi access from Aircell called GoGo Inflight Internet.
Meanwhile, Row 44 announced this week that it has raised $37 million, this only eight months after Aircell raised $176 million.
While others use ground based antennas, Row 44 leases telecomm satellites which can provide wifi access globally.
This is great news for the aviation industry as well as for passengers. Wifi is therefore perhaps the killer ancillary that people are actually prepared to pay for without feeling cheated.
Keeping passengers occupied with stuff that matters to them most will have them using their plastics like never before.
The ancillary business in aviation is exploding and last year the global airlines made more than $13 billion. Inflight wifi is so far a minimal revenue source.
But, lest we forget, so were check-in fees and other forms of ancillaries in the beginning.