It’s been over a decade since I have written much about using WiFi on an airplane—essentially since 2011, when I reviewed the GoGo service on Delta. WiFi in the air has improved considerably since then. Delta Airlines made a big step forward last year when it started the move from GoGo to Viasat. I had a chance to use it last week when I was flying home from Washington D.C. to New Orleans, and it worked incredibly well. The service was fast, and the price was reasonable.
Cost
Back in 2019, Delta announced that it wanted to eventually offer fast WiFi for free on every flight. Delta isn’t quite there yet, but it is close. I’ve seen times in the past (with the GoGo service) when it would cost up to $30 for WiFi on a flight. With the new Viasat service, the cost is only $5 for the duration of the flight.
At only $5, it is easy to justify the price even if all that you plan to do is get caught up on your emails. And keep in mind that if all that you want to do is send and receive text messages, Delta also offers a free tier that works with Apple’s iMessage service, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp. If you plan to travel often, you can also pay $50/month for access (or $70/month for international access).
Speed
Delta promised that speed would increase on planes that switched from GoGo to Viasat, and they were correct, at least for download speeds. I regularly saw over 60 Mbps on my plane, although upload speeds were only around 1 Mbps.
That speed is fast enough that you should have no trouble streaming video or getting work done. On my flight back to New Orleans last week, the speeds were fast enough that I could read all about Apple’s new iPad announcements, watch the video offered by Apple about the new iPads, and write a post about the new iPads, all while I was simply using my iPhone in my airline seat. It worked incredibly well.
I also like the idea of keeping up, and catching up, on email while on a flight. It is always annoying to have a plane land and then realize that you have 25 new emails to go through and decide whether anything is important, all while you are also trying to exit the plane and get to your final destination.
Summary
I understand that Delta is not the only airline using Viasat, so you may be able to see similarly good experiences on other planes. If it has been a while since you considered paying for WiFi on an airplane, you may want to reconsider. WiFi in the air can be incredibly convenient, and unlike in the past, the costs are low and the speed is impressive.