Legroom? Eh. Snacks? Meh. The must-have in-flight amenity is WiFi. Whether it's for checking email, catching up with friends on Facebook, or staying up-to-date with the news, there's no doubt that staying connected while up in the air is superuseful. A new study by Routehappy analyzed all commercial flights scheduled to depart Feb. 5, 2015, and compiled very interesting facts on the state of WiFi in the sky.
In terms of sheer number of flights with WiFi, Delta leads the pack with over 3,500 domestic flights offering an Internet connection in one day. American Airlines (roughly 2,800 flights), Southwest (roughly 2,700), United (1,000), JetBlue (roughly 500), Alaska (roughly 400), and Virgin America (roughly 250) follow in that order. But it's important to note that all, as in 100 percent, of Virgin America flights offer web access.
If you're deciding on which airline to commit a frequent fly-ership to, consider these three.
In it for the long haul and flying international? Routehappy calculated the percentage of flights with in-flight WiFi for non-US airlines, too.
Source: Routehappy
Icelandair and Norwegian offer significantly more flights with WiFi (over 80 percent) than Etihad, Singapore, Lufthansa, and other carriers.
Getting an Internet connection at 35,000 feet is now so important to some that one study by Honeywell Aerospace found that nearly 90 percent of fliers would give up legroom and preferred seating for better Wifi on board. You can actually check to see which flights have in-flight WiFi before you board. If you're flying economy, then heed these 10 tips to making coach feel like first class.