Why Wi Fi connectivity has become a necessity for airlines

Tony Drockton, who owns a luxury handbag company in Southern California, used to take the overnight flight to New York, rather than waste business hours out of touch. 

But now, his flight time is his work time as airlinesincreasingly offer Wi-Fi connections on their planes. 

"I need to stay connected so people don't realize where I am," said Drockton, who now travels with a laptop, smartphone and over-the-ears headphones. "It allows me to fly during business hours and not miss any day."

As to those travelers who enjoyed a few hours of being out of touch with the office, those days may be ending. Before Wi-Fi, "you had an excuse not to be in touch if you didn't want to be," said Henry H. Harteveldt, co-founder of Atmosphere Research Group, an airline and travel industry analyst in San Francisco. "The one last bastion of being off the grid has been taken away." 

And as airlines race to create connectivity on international flights through satellite Wi-Fi, the ability to stay online in the skies will only increase, experts say. 

"Passengers have an expectation of ubiquitous connectivity in their lives, especially younger travelers," Harteveldt said. "Walking on the street, in coffee shops, and it frustrates them when they get on a plane and they are told they're offline. The traveler wants to have control over when they go online." 

Others echoed his analysis. "People want to be connected 24/7," said Jonathan Kletzel, a transportation and logistics analyst at PWC. "It's a question of whether airlines are getting ahead of the curve or not." 

For now, technology use in the sky remains lower than on other modes of transportation, said Joseph P. Schwieterman, director of the Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development at DePaul University. 

Even so, Wi-Fi Internet access has expanded to 153 million passengers in 2011 from 153,000 in 2009, according to Gogo Wireless, a Wi-Fi provider for airlines. 

According to a report this year from the Chaddick Institute, the per centage of air travelers using technology at "random selected points" on a flight was 28.4 per cent in 2011, up from 23.2 per cent in 2010 and 17.6 per cent in 2009. 

The report found that more travelers were bringing their own devices, including tablets and e-readers, with them on planes. One in 12 airline passengers is now using a tablet, and that number continues to grow. Tablets account for almost 30 per cent of all technology use on commercial flights, and that share is also likely to grow. The use of tablets and technology, in general, tends to be "significantly higher on business-oriented flights," the report said.

As for the future of in-flight technology, Harteveldt said it depended on technological developments, travelers' preferences and airlines' budgets. The airlines tend to update cabins every five years. Harteveldt predicted that within 10 years, flights would be a "BYO entertainment" environment - that is, bring your own. 

Until then, travelers who want to stay productive and entertained en route to their business meetings are dependent on Wi-Fi. 

Or, as Drockton put it: "It's just about convenience and connectivity. I need it to work."